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ON THE 



RIGHT USE OF THE FATHERS. 






PRINTED BY P. A. NUTTALL AND C. F. HODGSON, 
GOUGH SQUARE, FLEET STREET. 



A TREATISE 



RIGHT USE OF THE FATHERS 



DECISION OF CONTROVERSIES EXISTING AT THIS 
DAY IN RELIGION. 



BY JOHN DAILLE, 

MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN THE REFORMED CHURCH OF PARIS. 



^Translator from tfje jfrend), 

AND REVISED BY THE REV. T. SMITH, M.A., 
OF CHRIST COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 

jjoto rc^etriletr ant? amentretr; 

WITH A PREFACE BY THE REV. G. JEKYLL, LL.B. 
RECTOR OF WEST COKER AND OF HAWKRIDGE AND WTTHYPOOL, CO. SOMERSET. 



SECOND EDITION. 



fi LONDON: 
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
M.DCCC.XLIII. 



CONTENTS. 



Editor's Preface * ix 

Preface by M. Daille' xvi 

Dedication xxi 



BOOK THE FIRST. 



CHAPTER I. 



On the Difficulty of ascertaining the Opinions of the Fathers in 
reference to the present Controversies in Religion, deduced 
from the fact that there is very little of their Writings extant 
of the three first Centuries 1 



CHAPTER II. 

That those Writings which we have of the Fathers of the first 
Centuries, treat of matters very far different from the present 
Controversies in Religion 8 

CHAPTER III. 

That those Writings which bear the names of the ancient Fathers, 
are not all really such ; but a great portion of them suppo- 
sititious and forged, either long since or at later periods.. . 12 



VI COx\TENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

That the Writings of the Fathers, which are considered legiti- 
mate, have been in many places corrupted by time, ignorance 
and fraud, pious and malicious, both in the early and later 
Ages 34 



CHAPTER V. 

That the Writings of the Fathers are difficult to be understood, 
on account of the Languages and Idioms in which they wrote, 
and the manner of their Writing, which is encumbered with 
rhetorical flourishes and logical subtleties, and with terms used 
in a sense far different from what they now bear 70 

CHAPTER VI. 

That the Fathers frequently conceal their own private Opinions, 
and say what they did not believe ; either in reporting the 
Opinion of others, without naming them, as in their Com- 
mentaries ; or disputing against an Adversary, where they 
make use of whatever they are able; or accommodating 
themselves to their Auditory, as may be observed in their 
Homilies 101 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Fathers have not always held the same Doctrine ; but have 
changed some of their Opinions, according as their judgment 
has become matured by study or age 119 

CHAPTER VIII. 

That it is necessary, but nevertheless difficult, to discover how 
the Fathers have held all their several Opinions; whether 
as necessary or as probable only; and in what degree of ne- 
cessity or probability 125 



CONTENTS. vii 



CHAPTER IX. 



We ought to know what have been the Opinions, not of one or 
more of the Fathers, but of the whole ancient Church : which 
is a very difficult matter to discover 138 

CHAPTER X. 

That it is very difficult to ascertain whether the Opinions of the 
Fathers, as to the Controversies of the present day, were 
received by the Church Universal, or only by some portion. of 
it ; this being necessary to be known, before their sentiments 
can be adopted , 146 

CHAPTER XI. 

It is impossible to know exactly what has been the belief of the 
ancient Church, either Universal or Particular, as to any 
of those points which are at this day controverted amongst 
us 154 



BOOK THE SECOND. 

THE FATHERS ARE NOT OF SUFFICIENT AUTHORITY FOR 
DECIDING CONTROVERSIES IN RELIGION. 



CHAPTER I.; 

The Testimonies given by the Fathers, on the Doctrines of the 
Church, are not always true and certain 16/ 



CHAPTER II. 

The Fathers testify against themselves, that they are not to be 
believed absolutely, and upon their own bare Assertion, in 
what they declare in matters of Religion 1/7 



Vlll CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 



The Fathers have written in such a manner, as to make it clear 
that when they wrote they had no intention of being our 
authorities in matters of Religion; as evinced by examples of 
their mistakes and oversights 205 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Fathers have erred in divers points of Religion ; not only 
singly, but also many of them together c . 226 

CHAPTER V. 

The Fathers have strongly Contradicted one another, and 
have maintained different Opinions in matters of very great 
importance t 278 

CHAPTER VI. 

That neither those of the Church of Rome nor the Protestants 
acknowledge the Fathers for their Judges in points of Reli- 
gion; both of them rejecting such of their Opinions and 
Practices as are not suited to their taste ; being an answer to 
two Objections that may be made against what is delivered in 
this Discourse 291 



PREFACE. 



" The authority of the Fathers (says Bishop War- 
burton, in his introduction to Julian,) had for many ages 
been esteemed sacred. These men, by taking the Greek 
philosophers to their assistance, in explaining the nature 
and genius of the Gospel, had unhappily turned reli- 
gion into an art ; and their successors the schoolmen, 
by framing a body of theology out of them, instead of 
searching for it in the Scriptures, soon after turned it 
into a trade. But (as in all affairs where reason does 
not hold the balance) that which had been extravagantly 
advanced, was, on the turn of the times, as extrava- 
gantly undervalued. It may not therefore be amiss to 
acquaint the English reader, in few words, how this 
came to pass. 

iC When the avarice and ambition of the Romish clergy 
had, by working with the superstition and ignorance of 
the people, erected what they call their hierarchy, and 
digested an ecclesiastical policy on the ruins of Gospel 
liberty, for the administration of it, they found nothing 
of such use for the support of this lordly system as the 
making the authority of the Fathers sacred and deci- 
sive. For having introduced numerous errors and su- 
perstitions both in rites and doctrine, which the silence 
and the declaration of Scripture equally condemned, they 
were obliged to seal up those living oracles, and open 
this new warehouse of the dead. And it was no wonder 



X PREFACE. 

if in that shoal of writers (as a poet of our own calls 
it) which the great drag-net of time hath inclosed, and 
brought down to us, under the name of Fathers, there 
should be some amongst them of a character suited to 
countenance any kind of folly or extravagance. The 
decisions of the Fathers, therefore, they thought fit to 
treat as laws, and to collect them into a kind of code, 
under the title of the Sentences. 

c< From this time every thing was tried at the bar of the 
Fathers ; and so unquestioned was their jurisdiction, that 
when the great defection was made from the Church of 
Rome back again to the Church of Christ, the reformed, 
though they shook off the tyranny of the Pope, could 
not disengage themselves from the unbounded authority 
of the Fathers ; but carried that prejudice with them, as 
they did some others of a worse complexion, into the 
Protestant religion. For in sacred matters, as novelty 
is suspicious, and antiquity venerable, they thought it for 
their credit to have the Fathers on their side. They 
seemed neither to consider antiquity in general as a 
thing relative, nor Christian antiquity as a thing positive: 
either of which would have shewn them that the Fathers 
themselves were modern, compared to that authority on 
which the Reformation was founded ; and that the Gospel 
was that true antiquity on which all its followers should 
repose themselves. The consequence of which unhappy 
error was, that, in the long appeal to reason, between 
Protestants and Papists, both of them going on a com- 
mon principle, of the decisive authority of the Fathers, 
enabled the latter to support their credit against 
all the evidence of common sense and sacred Scripture. 
" At length an excellent writer of the Reformed, observ- 
ing that the controversy was likely to be endless \ for 
though the gross corruptions of Popery were certainly 
later than the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, to 



PREFACE. XI 

which the appeal was usually made, yet the seeds of 
them being then sown, and beginning to pullulate, it 
was but too plain there was hold enough for a skilful 
debater to draw the Fathers to his own side, and make 
them water the sprouts they had been planting : ob- 
serving this, I say, he wisely projected to shift the 
ground, and force the disputants to vary their method, 
both of attack and defence. In order to this he com- 
posed a discourse of the True Use of the Fathers; in 
which, with uncommon learning and strength of argu- 
ment, he shewed that the Fathers were incompetent 
deciders of the controversies now on foot j since the 
points in question were not formed into articles till long 
after the ages in which they lived. This was bringing 
the Fathers from the bench to the table 5 degrading 
them from the rank of judges into the class of simple 
evidence 5 in which, too, they were not to speak, like 
Irish evidence, in every cause where they were wanted, 
but only to such matters as were agreed to be within 
their knowledge. Had this learned critic stopped here, 
his book had been free from blame 5 but at the same 
time his purpose had in all likelihood proved very inef- 
fectual ; for the obliquity of old prejudices is not to be 
set straight by reducing it to that line of right which 
barely restores it to integrity. He went much further : 
and by shewing, occasionally, that they were absurd 
interpreters of holy writ $ that they were bad reasoners 
in morals, and very loose evidence in facts 3 he seemed 
willing to have his reader infer, that even though they 
had been masters of the subject, yet these other 
defects would have rendered them very unqualified 
deciders. 

" However, the work of this famous foreigner had great 
consequences : and especially with us here at home. 
The more learned amongst the nobility (which, at that 



XII PREFACE. 

time, was of the republic of letters) were the first who 
em ancipated themselves from the general prejudice. It 
brought the excellent Lord Falkland to think moderately 
of the Fathers, and to turn his theological inquiries into 
a more useful channel ; and his great rival in arts, the 
famous Lord Digby, found it of such use to him, in his 
defence of the Reformation against his cousin Sir Kenhelm, 
that he has even epitomised it in his fine letter on that 
subject. But what it has chiefly to boast of is, that it 
gave birth to the two best defences ever written on the 
two best subjects, religion and liberty : I mean Mr. 
ChillingwortKs Religion of Protestants, and Dr. Jer. Tay- 
lor s Liberty of Prophesying. In a word, it may be truly 
said to be the storehouse from whence all who have 
since written popularly on the character of the Fathers, 
have derived their materials." 

Deeply impressed with the sound views taken by the 
acute and learned Bishop, and believing that] this work 
may be very useful in this age of the Church, when the 
simple doctrines of our most holy religion bid fair to be 
made of none effect by tradition, the Editor ventures 
to introduce it, in a corrected and amended state, to the 
notice of the public. 

Jean Daille, one of the most learned divines of the 
17th Century, was born at Chatelleraut, in Poitou, 
6th January, 1594. Having been designed by his father, 
who was receiver of the consignments at Poitiers, to 
succeed him in his business, his early education was 
neglected 5 but his natural thirst for learning could not 
be restrained, and at the age of eleven he was sent to 
school to learn the first rudiments. Close application, 
assisted by a good understanding, soon enabled him to 
retrieve the lost time ; and when only eighteen years of 
age he was received into the family of the illustrious 
M. Da Plessis Mornay, as tutor to his two grandsons, 



PREFACE. Xlll 

whom he accompanied some years after in a tour to 
Italy. One of the brothers dying at Padua, he travelled 
with his remaining pupil through Switzerland, Germany, 
Flanders, and Holland; and thence to England, — re- 
turning to France about the end of the year 1621. He 
always in after life regretted the two years spent in 
travelling, which he reckoned almost as lost, because he 
might have spent them more usefully in his closet ; the 
only advantage he received being the acquaintance of 
Father Paul at Venice, to whom he had been recom- 
mended by M. Du Plessis. He was called to the 
ministry in 1623, and officiated first in the house of his 
patron, at whose death, in r the November of the same 
year, he was removed to the church of Saumur, and in 
1626 to that of Paris. The remainder of his life was 
spent in the service of this last church. He died in 
1670, aged 77 years. 

Daille's early love of learning continued through life. 
We read of him, " that his books and studies were his 
chief recreation and delight. He rose very early, and 
by that means had five or six hours free from the 
common hurry of life which he could spend in his 
closet."* The daily husbanding of so many hours 
through a long life — and those hours devoted to reading 
and meditation — enabled him to acquire so extraordinary 
a stock of learning, that he was considered one of the 
best read men of his age. 

What is recorded of Pliny might be truly said of 
Daille — " he read nothing without making extracts, for 
he was wont to say that no book was so bad, that he 
could not gain some profit from it." 

In 1631 he published his first work, "Du VraiEmploi 



Abrege de la Vie de Da : lle. 



XIV PREFACE. 

des Peres." This performance excited considerable 
attention and controversy, and has generally been con- 
sidered his master-piece. It contains a very strong 
chain of arguments, which form a moral demonstration 
against those who would have differences of religion to 
be decided by the authority of the Fathers.* 

An English translation of this work appeared in 1651, 
under the signature of "T. S." which has usually been 
attributed to the learned Thomas Smith, M.A., Fellow 
of Christ's College, Cambridge ; although from a re- 
mark which appears in the preface to that edition, " that 
he commended it to the world, as faithfully translated 
by a judicious hand," we might infer that the transla- 
tion was merely submitted to his editorial revision ; or 
probably he undertook the translation jointly with 
others. M. Mettayer however, who only four years 
after published a Latin translation of the work, says, 
in the dedication to Daille, that Smith himself was the 
translator of the English edition; thus contradicting 
the assertion of Scrivener, " that Mr. Smith had told 
him that the translation was not made by himself, but 
by an Oxford man, and that he himself would have con- 
futed the work if he had thought it worth the while. "f 
Now Smith, in his address to the reader, after introducing 
the recommendatory testimonies of Lord Falkland, Lord 
Digby, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, and others, says, " Etsiquis 
cuculo locus inter oscines, I must ingenuously profess, 
that it was the reading of this rational book which first 
convinced me that my study in the French language was 
not ill employed." The truth is, that Scrivener wished 
to excite a prejudice against Daille's work, in answer to 
which he was writing his " Apology for the Fathers $" 

* Enc Brit. 

f Scriveneri Apol. pro Sanctae Eccles. Pat. London 1672. 



PREFACE. XV 

and in his preface he made the above-mentioned asser- 
tion of the English translation by Smith. Lord Claren- 
don however, in his answer to Cressy, shews what degree 
of credit is to be attached to the statements of Scrive- 
ner 5 and the learned Du Moulin, in his " Patronus 
bonse fidei in causa Puritanorum contra Hierarchos 
Anglos/' inflicts a severe chastisement on Daille's semi- 
pfcjristical opponent. 

It may here be observed, that although a simple 
reprint of this standard work would have been desirable, 
it has been thought advisable to alter and amend the 
translation, the language of which was frequently ob- 
scure, and had become too antiquated and obsolete for 
modern times. The notes have been re-arranged, and 
the typography modernized ; so as to render the read- 
ing of the volume more pleasant and agreeable. 

The Editor thinks he shall be promoting the best 
interests of the Church, by the republication of a work 
which did her good service when attacked by her 
enemies from without, and which he believes to be 
eminently calculated to serve her now, when her founda- 
tions are being sapped by some of her sons from within. 
To conclude, in the words of Bishop Hurd, " May the 

EYES OF THE MORE CANDID AND INTELLIGENT 
INQUIRERS BE OPENED, AND THE OLD PRINCIPLE 
BE FOR EVER ESTABLISHED, THAT THE BlBLE, AND 
THAT ONLY (INTERPRETED BY OUR BEST REASON) 

is the Religion of Protestants."* 

* Bishop Hurd on Proph. vol. ii. p. 217. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



All the difference in religion, which is at this day 
between the Church of Rome and the Protestants, lies 
in some certain points which the Church of Rome 
maintains as important and necessary articles of the 
Christian faith : whereas the Protestants, on the con- 
trary, neither believe nor will receive them for such. For 
as for those matters which the Protestants believe, which 
they conceive to be the fundamentals of religion, 
they are evidently and undeniably such, that even their 
enemies admit and receive them as well as they : inas- 
much as they are both clearly delivered in the Scrip- 
tures, and expressly admitted by the ancient councils 
and Fathers ; and are indeed unanimously received by 
the greatest part of Christians in all ages, and in differ- 
ent parts of the world. Such, for example, are the 
maxims, " That there is a God who is supreme over 
all, and who created the heavens and the earth : — that 
he created man after his own image ; and that this man, 
revolting from his obedience, is fallen, together with his 
whole posterity, into most extreme and eternal misery, 
and become infected with sin, as with a mortal leprosy, 
and is therefore obnoxious to the wrath of God, and 
liable to his curse : — that the merciful Creator, pitying 
man's estate, graciously sent his Son Jesus Christ into 
the world : — that his Son is God eternal with him j 
and that having taken flesh upon himself in the womb 
of the Virgin Mary, and become man, he has done 



AUTHOR S PREFACE. XVII 

and suffered in this flesh all things necessary for our 
salvation, having by this means sufficiently expiated 
for our sins by his blood -, and that having finished all 
this, he ascended again into heaven, and sitteth at the 
right hand of the Father j from whence he shall one 
day come to judge all mankind, rendering to every one 
according to their works : — that to enable us to com- 
municate of this salvation by his merits, he sends us 
down his Holy Spirit, proceeding both from the Father 
and the Son, and who is also one and the same God 
with them; so that these three persons are notwith- 
standing but one God, who is blessed for ever : — that 
this Spirit enlightens our understanding, and generates 
faith in us, whereby we are justified : — that after all 
this, the Lord sent his Apostles to preach this doc- 
trine of salvation throughout the whole world : — that 
these have planted churches, and placed in each of 
them pastors and teachers, whom we are to hear with 
all reverence, and to receive from them Baptism, the 
sacrament of our regeneration, and the holy Eucharist, 
or Lord's Supper, which is the sacrament of our com- 
munion with Jesus Christ : — that we are likewise all of 
us bound fervently to love God and our neighbour -, 
observing diligently that holy doctrine which is laid 
down for us in the books of the New Testament, 
which have been inspired by his Spirit of truth ; as also 
those other of the Old 5 there being nothing, either in 
the one or in the other, but what is most true. 

These articles, and there may be some few others 
of a similar nature, are the substance of the Protes- 
tant's whole belief: and if all other Christians would 
but content themselves with these, there would never be 
any schism in the Church. But now their adversaries 
add to these many other points, which they press 
and command men to believe as necessary ; and such 



XV111 AUTHOR S PREFACE. 

as, without believing in, there is no possible hope of 
salvation. As for example : — that the Pope of Rome 
is the head and supreme monarch of the whole Chris- 
tian Church throughout the world :— that he, or at 
least the church which he acknowledges a true one, 
cannot possibly err in matters of faith : — that the 
sacrament of the Eucharist is to be adored, as being really 
Jesus Christ, and not a piece of bread : — that the mass 
is a sacrifice, that really expiates the sins of the faith- 
ful : — that Christians may and ought to have in their 
churches the images of God and of saints, to which, 
bowing down before them, — they are to use religious 
worship : — that it is lawful, and also very useful, to pray 
to saints departed and to angels : — that our souls after 
death, before they enter into heaven, are to pass through 
a certain fire, and there to endure grievous torments ; 
thus making atonement for their sins : — that we 
neither may nor ought to receive the holy Eucharist, 
without having first confessed in private to a priest: — 
that none but the priest himself that consecrated the 
Eucharist is bound by right to receive it in both kinds : — 
with a great number erf other opinions, which their ad- 
versaries plainly protest that they cannot with a safe 
conscience believe. 

These points are the ground of the whole difference 
between them; the one party pretending that they 
have been believed and received by the Church of Christ 
in all ages as revealed by him : and the other maintain- 
ing the contrary. 

Now, seeing that none of these tenets have any 
ground from any passage in the New Testament, 
(which is the most ancient and authentic rule of Chris- 
tianity,) the maintainers are glad to fly to the writings 
of the doctors of the Church, which lived within the four 
or five first centuries after the Apostles, who are com- 



AUTHOR S PREFACE. XIX 

monly called the Fathers : my'purpose in this treatise is 
to examine whether or not this be good and sufficient 
means for the decision of these differences. For this 
purpose I must first pre-suppose two things, which any 
reasonable person will easily grant me. The first is, 
that the question being here about laying a foundation 
for certain articles of faith, upon the testimonies or 
opinions of the Fathers, it is very necessary that the 
passages which are produced out of them be clear, and 
not to be doubted -, that is to say, such as we cannot 
reasonably scruple at, either as regards the author, 
out of whom they are alleged; or the sense of the 
place, whether it signify what is pretended to. For a 
deposition of a witness, and the sentence of a judge, 
being of no value at all, save only for the reputation of 
the witness or judge, it is most evident, that if either 
proceed from persons unknown, or suspected, they are 
invalid, and prove nothing. In like manner, if the 
deposition of a witness or sentence of a judge be ob- 
scure, and in doubtful terms, it is clear, that in this 
case the business must rest undecided ; there being 
another doubt first to be cleared, namely, what the 
meaning of either of them was. The second point that 
I shall here lay down for a foundation to the ensuing 
discourse, is no less evident than the former : namely, 
that to allow a sufficiency to the writings of the Fathers 
or the deciding of those controversies, we must neces- 
sarily attribute to their persons very great authority; 
and such as may oblige us to follow their judgment in 
matters of religion. For if this authority be want- 
ing, however clear and express their opinions be, in the 
articles now controverted, it will do nothing towards 
their decision. We have therefore here two things to 
examine in this business. The first is. whether or not 
we may be able to know, with certainty and clearness, 



XX AUTHOR S PREFACE. 

what the opinion of the Fathers has been on the differ- 
ences now in hand. The second, whether their autho- 
rity be such, that every faithful person who shall 
clearly and certainly know what their opinion has 
been in any one article of Christian religion, is thereby 
bound to receive that article for true. For if the 
Church of Rome be but able to prove both these 
points, it is then without all dispute that their proceed- 
ing is good, and agreeable to the end proposed ; there 
being so many writings of the ancient Fathers at this 
day adduced by them. But if, on the contrary, either 
of these two things, or both of them, be indeed found 
to be doubtful, I should think that any man, of a very 
mean judgment, should be able to conclude of himself, 
that this way of proof, which they have hitherto made 
use of, is very insufficient ; and that therefore they of 
necessity ought to have recourse to some other more 
proper and solid way of proving the truth of the said 
opinions, which the Protestants will not by any means 
receive. 



TO THE 

NOBLE LADY ANNE MORNAY, 

LADY OF TABARRIERE, BARONESS OF ST. HERMINE, &<\ 



Madam, 

It is now nearly four years since your son, 
the late Baron of St. Hermine, acquainted me with what 
kind of discourse he was usually entertained at court 
by those who laboured to advance the Romish religion, 
rather to excite his disgust against the Reformed ; and 
told me that the chief argument which they urged 
against him was Antiquity, and the General Consent of 
all the Fathers of the first ages of Christianity. Al- 
though he himself understood well enough the vanity 
of this argument of theirs, yet, notwithstanding, for 
his own fuller satisfaction, he requested that I would 
discover to him the very depth of this matter. This 
therefore I did, as minutely as I possibly could, and 
gave him my judgment at large in this particular. 
This treatise of mine he was pleased so much to approve, 
that he conceived some hopes from thence, that it 
might also happily be of use to others. 

Shortly afterwards I put pen to paper, and digested 
it into the treatise you now see. It having therefore 
been composed at first for his service, I had resolved 
also with myself to have dedicated it to his name ; 
purporting, by this small piece of service, to testify to 



XXII DEDICATION. 

the world the continuation of the affection I bare to 
his progress in piety. But that deadly blow which 
snatched him from us in the flower of his age, about 
two years since, at the famous siege of Bosleduc, having 
left us nothing of him now, save only the spoils of his 
mortality, and the memory of his virtue, together with 
our great sorrow for having enjoyed him here so short 
a time, I am constrained, Madam, to change my former 
resolution. For to dedicate my book to him, in the 
state wherein he now is, in heaven, (following the ex- 
ample of many both ancient and modern writers, who 
have not hesitated to direct their discourses from hence 
below to those whom God has taken into heaven,) I 
cannot persuade myself that the practice is either law- 
ful or becoming. For, besides the vanity of the thing, 
should we hold discourse with one, who, being at so 
great and almost infinite a distance from us, cannot 
possibly hear what we say, I should account it also , if 
he could hear us, a point of extreme inhumanity, 
I had almost said impiety, to disturb that perfect rest 
his blessed soul now enjoys ; which has now no more 
to do with our debates or discourses here below ; but 
sees the truth now in a most pure light, and enjoys that 
everlasting bliss wherewith our Saviour has out of his 
mercy crowned his faith and perseverance in the fear of 
his name. I shall therefore content myself with cherish- 
ing and preserving, whilst I live, the precious memory 
of his worth, the excellency of his wit, the soundness of 
his judgment, the sweetness of his nature, the fairness 
of his carriage, and those other choice parts, wherewith 
he was accomplished 5 but, above all, his singular piety, 
which clearly shone forth in his words and actions, 
till the hour of his death. 

As for this small treatise, Madam, which was at 



DEDICATION. XX111 

first conceived and composed for him, I thought I could 
not, without being guilty of a piece of injustice, present 
it to any other but yourself : seeing it has pleased God, 
notwithstanding the common order of nature, to make 
you heir to him to whom it belonged. This considera- 
tion only has emboldened me to present it to your 
hands ; knowing that the nature of this discourse is 
not so suitable to that sorrow which has of late cast a 
cloud over your house j it having pleased God, after 
the death of the son, to deprive you of the father 5 and 
to the loss of your children, to add that also of your 
noble husband. But my desire to avoid being unjust 
has forced me to be thus uncivilly troublesome : seeing 
I accounted it a kind of theft, should I have any longer 
withheld from you that which was your right, by this 
sad title of inheritance. Be pleased therefore, Madam, 
to receive this book, as a part of the goods of your de- 
ceased son ; which I now honestly restore, in the view 
of the whole world, after concealment of it for some 
time in my study. This name, I know, will oblige you 
to afford it some place in your closet, which is all that 
I can at present desire. For as for the reading of it, 
besides that your exquisite piety (which is built upon 
infinitely much firmer grounds than these disputes,) 
has no need at all of it ; I know also that your present 
condition is such, that it would be very troublesome to 
you. And if you shall chance to desire to spend some 
hours in the perusal of it, it must be hereafter, when 
the Lord, by the efficacy of his Spirit, shall have com- 
forted yours, and shall have allayed the violence of your 
grief 5 to whom I pour out my most earnest prayers, 
that he would vouchsafe powerfully to effect the same, 
and to shed forth his most holy grace upon you 
and yours 5 and that he would by his great mercy 



XXIV DEDICATION. 

preserve, long and happily, that which remains of that 
goodly and blessed family, which he has bestowed upon 
you. 

This, Madam, is one of the most hearty prayers of 
Your most humble 

And obedient servant, 

DAILLE'. 






ON THE 



RIGHT USE OF THE FATHERS, 



BOOK THE FIRST. 



CHAPTER I. 

REASON I. ON THE DIFFICULTY OF ASCERTAINING THE 

OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS IN REFERENCE TO THE 
PRESENT CONTROVERSIES IN RELIGION, DEDUCED 
FROM THE FACT THAT THERE IS VERY LITTLE OF 
THEIR WRITINGS EXTANT OF THE THREE FIRST 
CENTURIES. 

If we should here follow the same course of argument, 
which some writers of the Church of Rome pursue 
against the Holy Scriptures, it would be very easy 
to bring in question, and render very doubtful and 
suspected, all the writings of the Fathers ; for when the 
Old or New Testament is quoted, these gentlemen in- 
stantly demand, how or by what means we know that 
any such books were really written by those prophets 
and apostles whose names they bear ? If therefore, in 
like manner, when these men adduce Justin, Irenaeus, 
Ambrose, Augustine, and others, we should at once 
demand of them, how and by what means we are 
assured that these Fathers were the authors of those 
writings which at this day bear their names, there is 
little doubt but that they would find a harder task of it 
than their adversaries would, in justifying the writings 
of the sacred volume ; the truth whereof is much 
more easy to be demonstrated than of any human 

B 



C Z "WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS 

writings whatsoever. But I shall pass by this too arti- 
ficial way of proceeding, and only say, that it is not 
very easy to find out, by the writings of the Fathers, 
what has really been their opinion, in any of those con- 
troversies which are now in dispute between the Pro- 
testants and the Church of Rome. The considerations,, 
which render the knowledge of this so difficult, are 
many ; I shall therefore, in this first Part, discuss some of 
them only, referring the rest to the second Part, exa- 
mining them one after another. 

The first reason, therefore, which I shall lay down for 
the proving of this difficulty, is the little we have extant 
of the writings of the ancient Fathers, especially of the 
first, second, and third centuries ; which are those we 
are most especially to regard. For, seeing that one of 
the principal reasons that moves the Church of Rome 
to adduce the writings of the Fathers, is to shew the 
truth of their tenets by their antiquity, which they 
consider as indicative of it -, it is evident that the most 
ancient ought to be the most noticed. And indeed 
there is no question but that the Christian religion was 
more pure and without mixture in its beginning and 
infancy, than it was afterwards in its growth and pro- 
gress : it being the ordinary course of things to contract 
corruptions, more or less, according as they are more 
or less removed from their first institution : as we see 
by experience in states, laws, arts, and languages, the 
natural propriety of all which is continually declining, 
after they have once passed the point of their vigour, 
and as it were the flower and prime of their strength and 
perfection. Now, I cannot believe that any faithful 
Christian will deny but that Christianity was in its zenith 
and perfection at the time of the blessed Apostles ; 
and indeed it would be the greatest injury that could be 
offered them, to say that any of their successors have 
either had a greater desire or more abilities to advance 
Christianity then they had. It will hence follow then, 
that those times which were nearest to the Apostles 
were necessarily the purest, and less subject to suspi- 
cion of corruption, either in doctrine, or in manners 
and Christian discipline : it being but reasonable to be- 
lieve, that it' any corruptions have crept into the 



OF THE THREE FIRST CENTURIES. 3 

Church, they came in by little and little, and by de- 
grees, as it happens in all other things. Some may 
here object, that even the very next age, imme- 
diately after the times of the Apostles, was not without 
its errors, if we may believe Hegesippus ; who, as he is 
cited by Eusebius, witnesseth, that the Church continued 
a virgin till the emperor Trajan's time ; but that, after 
the death of the Apostles the conspiracy of error began 
to discover itself with open face : — *£Iq apa pxP* TbJV 
tote yjpovw 7rapdevoQ Kadapa Kat aSia(f)6opCQ tfieivev ff etc- 
K\r)(7ia, &c. d)Q o 1 6 lepoQ tiov airoaroKiov X°P°G ciatbopov 
eiXriQei tov (3tov reXog, 7rape\rj\vdeL re rj y£j/fa sksivt) tivv 
avraig aKoaig rrjg kvdeov ao&iag tirciKovoai KaTrjEiwfJiEVUJV, 
rrjiifcavra rrjg aOeov 7rXav7jg rr\v ap\r]v iXafi(iavev tf avtrra- 
crig, ()ia ttjq tu)v erepodiSaffKaXioy airarrjc;, ol Kru are fjLrjSevog 
en twv a7ro(JToX(i)v Xei7rof.ievov, yvjj,vq Xonroi> rj^rf rrj KetyaXrj 
to) ttjq aXrjSeiag Krjpvyjxari tyjv '^evSwi'v/jlov yvwaiv avTi~ 

KrjpVTTELV €7T£^£(jOOUV.* 

I shall not oppose any thing against this testimony, 
but shall only say, that if the enemy, immediately upon 
the setting of these stars of the Church, their presence 
and light being scarcely shut in, had yet the boldness 
presently to fall to sowing his evil seed ; how much 
more had he the opportunity of doing this in those ages 
which were further removed from their times ; when (as 
the sanctity and simplicity of these great teachers of 
the world, having now by little and little vanished out 
of the memories of men) human inventions and new 
fancies began to take place? So that we may conclude 
that even supposing the first ages of Christianity have 
not been altogether exempt from alteration in doctrine, 
yet are they much more free from it than the succeeding 
ages can pretend to be, and are therefore consequently 
to be preferred to them in all respects ; it being here 
something like what the poets have fancied of the four 
ages of the w T orld, where the succeeding age always 
came short of the former. As for the opinion of those 
men f who think the best way to find out the true 
sense of the ancient Church, will be to search the 
writings of those of the Fathers chiefly who lived be- 

* Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 3. cap. 26. 

f Cassand. Consult. Ferdinan. p. 894. Perron. Epist. to Casaub. 

B 2 



4 WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS 

tween the time of Constantine the Great and Pope Leo, 
or Pope Gregory's time, (that is to say, from the end 
of the third century to the beginning of the seventh,) I 
consider this as an admission only of the small number 
of books that are left us of those ages before Constan- 
tine, and not that these men allow that the authority of 
these three later ages ought to be preferred to that of 
the three former. 

If we had but as much light and as clear evidences 
of the belief of the one as we have of the other, I make 
no question but they would prefer the former. But if 
they mean otherwise, and are indeed of a persuasion 
that the Church was really more pure after Constan- 
tine's time than before, they must excuse me, if I think 
that they by this means confess the distrust they have 
of their own cause, seeing that they endeavour to fly as 
far as they can from the light of the primitive times ; 
retreating to those ages, wherein it is most evident 
there were both less perfection and light than before ; 
running altogether contrary to that excellent rule which 
S. Cyprian hath given us :* That we should have re- 
course to the fountain, whenever the channel and stream 
of doctrine and ecclesiastical tradition are found to be 
the least corrupted. But, however, let their meaning 
be what it will, their words, in my judgment, do not a 
little advance the Protestants' cause; it being a very clear 
confession that those opinions, about which they contest 
with them, do not at all appear clearly in any of the 
books that were written during the three first centuries. 
For if they were found clearly in the same, what policy 
were it then in them to appeal to the writers of the three 
following centuries, to which they very well know that their 
adversaries attribute less than to the former ? But be- 
sides this tacit confession of theirs the thing is evident ; 
namely, that there is left us at this day very little of the 
writings o*' the Fathers of the three first centuries of 
Christianity for the deciding of our differences. 

The blessed Christians of those times contented them- 
selves, for the greatest part, with writing the Christian 
faith in the hearts of men, by the beams of their 

* Cypr. ep. 74, p. 195. 



OF THE THREE FIRST CENTURIES. 5 

sanctity and holy life, and by the blood shed in martyr- 
dom, without much troubling themselves with the 
writing of books : whether it were because, as the 
learned Origen * elegantly gives the reason, they were of 
opinion that the Christian religion was to be defended 
by the innocency of life and honesty of conversation, 
rather than by sophistry and the artifice of words : or 
whether, because their continual sufferings gave them 
not leisure to take pen in hand and to write books ; or 
else, whether it were for some other reason perhaps, 
which we know not. But of this we are very well 
assured, that, except the writings of the Apostles, 
there was very little written by others in these primi- 
tive times ; and this was the cause of so much trouble 
to Eusebius in the beginning of his history, who had 
little or no light to guide him in his undertaking ; tread- 
ing, as he saith, "in a new path, unbeaten by any that 
had gone before him." f 

Besides, the greatest part of those few books which 
were written by the Christians of those times, have not 
come down to our hands, but were lost, either through 
the injury of time, that consumeth all things 3 or else 
have been destroyed by the malice of men, who have 
made bold to suppress whatsoever they met with that 
was not altogether to their taste. Of this sort were 
those five books of Papias bishop of Hierapolis, the 
apology of Quadratus Atheniensis, and that other of 
Aristides, the writings of Castor Agrippa against the 
twenty-four books of the heretic Basilides, the five 
books of Hegesippus, the works of Melito bishop of 
SardiSj Dionysius bishop of Corinth, Apollinaris bishop of 
Hierapolis, the epistle of Pinytus Cretensis, the writings 
of Philippus, Musanus, Modestus, Bardesanes, Pantaenus, 
Rhodon, Miltiades, Apollonius, Serapion, Bacchylus, 
Polycrates bishop of Ephesus, Heraclius, Maximus, 
Hammonius, Tryphon, Hippolytus, Julius, Africanus, 
Dionysius Alexandrinus, and others ; of whom we have 
nothing left but their names and the titles of their 

* Orig. Praef. Operis contra. Cels. p. 1, 2. 

f O/a T/va Ipritxr,]) xcu ct.Tpi$r t Uvou oSov ey^s/povusv. — Euseb. Hist. 

Eccles. 1.1. c. 1. 



6 WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS 

books, which are preserved in the works of Eusebius, 
St. Hierome, and others. * All that we have left us of 
these times, which is certainly known to be theirs, and 
of which no man doubts, are some certain discourses of 
St. Justin, the philsopher and martyr, who wrote his 
second apology a hundred and fifty years after the 
nativity of our Saviour Christ; the five books of St. 
Ireneeus, who wrote not long after him -, three excel- 
lent and learned pieces of Clemens Alexandrinus, who 
lived towards the end of the second century ; divers 
books of Tertullian, who was famous about the same 
time , the epistles and other treatises of St. Cyprian 
bishop of Carthage, who suffered martyrdom about the 
year of our Saviour c 26l ; the writings of Arnobius, and 
of Lactantius his scholar, and some few others. As 
for Origen, St. Cyprian's contemporary, — who alone, 
had we but all his writings entire, would be able per- 
haps to give us more light and satisfaction in the busi- 
ness we are now engaged in than all the rest, — we have 
but very little of him left, and the greatest part of that too 
most miserably abused and corrupted ; the most learned 
and almost innumerable writings of this great and in- 
comparable person not being able to withstand the 
ravages of time, nor the envy and malice of men, who 
have dealt much worse with him, than so many ages 
and centuries of years that have passed from his time 
down to us. 

Thus have I given you an account of well nigh all 
that we have left us, which is certainly known to have 
been written by the Fathers of the three first centuries. 
For as for those other pieces, which are pretended to 
have been written in the same times, but are indeed 
either confessed to be supposititious by the Romanists 
themselves, or are rejected by their adversaries, and that 
upon very good and probable grounds ; these cannot 
have any place or account here, in elucidating the con- 
troversy we have now in hand. 

The writings of the fourth and fifth centuries have, 
I confess, surpassed the former in number and good 
fortune too; the greatest part of them having been 

* llieron. 1. de Scriptor. &c. Euseb. in hist, passim. Tertul. ali- 
quorum meminit. 



OF THE THREE FIRST CENTURIES. J 

transmitted safely to our hands ; but they come much 
short of the other in weight and authority, especially in 
the judgment of the Protestants, who maintain, and 
that upon very probable grounds, that the Christian 
religion hath from the beginning had its declinings by 
little and little, losing in every age some certain degree 
of its primitive and native purity. And besides, we 
have good reason perhaps to fear lest the number of 
writers of these two ages trouble us as much as the 
paucity of them in the three preceding : and that, as 
before we suffered under scarcity, we now may be 
overwhelmed by their multitude. For the number of 
words and of books serves as much sometimes to the 
suppressing of the sense and opinion of any public 
bodj T , as silence itself; our minds being then extremely 
confounded and perplexed, while it labours to compre- 
hend what is the true and common opinion of the 
whole, amidst so many differently biassed details, 
whereof each endeavours to express the same ; it being 
most certain, that amongst so great and almost infinite 
variety of spirits and tongues, you shall hardly ever 
meet with two persons that shall deliver to you one and 
the same opinion, (especially in matters of so high a 
nature as the controversies in religion,) after the same 
form and way of representation, how unanimous soever 
their consent may otherwise be in the same opinion. 
And this variety, although it be but in the circumstances 
of the thing, makes, notwithstanding, the foundation 
itself also appear different. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS 



CHAPTER II. 

REASON II. THAT THOSE WRITINGS WHICH WE HAVE 

OF THE FATHERS OF THE FIRST CENTURIES, TREAT 
OF MATTERS VERY FAR DIFFERENT FROM THE PRE- 
SENT CONTROVERSIES IN RELIGION. 

But suppose that neither the want of books in the 
three first centuries, nor yet the abundance of them in 
the three following, should produce these inconveniences; 
it will nevertheless be very hard to discover from them 
what the opinion of their authors has been concerning 
those points of the Christian religion now contro- 
verted. For the matters whereof they treat are of a 
very different nature ; these authors, according as the 
necessity of the times required, employing themselves 
either in justifying the Christian religion, and vindicat- 
ing it from the aspersion of such crimes, wherewith it was 
most falsely and injuriously charged -, or else in laying 
open to the world the absurdity and impiety of Pa- 
ganism j or in convincing the hard-hearted Jews, or in 
confuting the prodigious fooleries of the heretics of 
those times ; or in exhortations to the faithful to patience 
and martyrdom ; or in expounding some certain passages 
and portions of the Holy Scripture : all which things 
have very little concern with the controversies of these 
times j of which they never speak a syllable, unless 
they accidentally or by chance let a word drop from 
them toward this side or that side, yet without the 
least thought of us or of our controversies ; although 
both the one and the other party sometimes light upon 
passages, wherein they conceive they have discovered 
their own opinions clearly delivered, though in vain 
for the most part, and without ground : precisely as 
he did, who on hearing the ringing of bells, thought 
they perfectly sounded out what he in his own thoughts 



OF THE FIRST CENTURIES. 9 

had fancied, Justin Martyr and Tertullian, Theophilus 
and Lactantius, Clemens and Arnobius, shew the hea- 
then the vainness of their religion, and of their gods j 
and that Jupiter and Juno were but mortals, and that 
there is but one only God, the Creator of heaven and 
earth. Irenaeus bends his whole forces against the 
strong opinions of Basilides, the Valentinians, and 
other Gnostics, who were the inventors of the most 
chimaerical divinity that ever came into the fancy of 
man. Tertullian also lashes them, as they well deserve ; 
but he especially takes Marcion, Hermogenes, Apelles, 
Praxeas, and others to task, who maintained that there 
were two Gods, or two principles, and confounded the 
persons of the Father and the Son. Cyprian is wholly 
upon the discipline and the virtues of the Christian 
Church. Arius, Macedonius, Eunomius, Photinus, Pe- 
lagius, and afterwards Nestorius and Eutyches, made 
work for the Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries. 

The blasphemies of these men against the person or 
the natures of our Saviour Christ, or against the Holy 
Ghost and its grace, which have now of a long time lain 
buried and forgotten, were the matters controverted 
in those times, and the subject of the greatest part of 
the books then written, that have come to our hands. 
What relation has any thing of all this to the doctrines 
of transubstantiation, and the adoration of the eu- 
charist, or the monarchy of the Pope, or the necessity 
of auricular confession, or the worshipping of images, 
and similar points, which are those of the present 
controversies, and which none of the ancients have 
treated expressly and by design, or perhaps never so 
much as thought of ? It is very true indeed, that the 
silence of these Fathers in these points, which some set 
so much value by, is not wholly silent, and perhaps also 
it may pass for a very clear testimony, but certainly not 
on their side who maintain them affirmatively. But, 
however, this is a most certain truth, that throughout 
the whole body of the genuine writings of these Fathers, 
you shall not meet with anything expressly urged either 
for or against the greatest part of these opinions. I 
shall most willingly confess, that the belief of every 
wise man makes up but one entire body, the parts 

b 5 



10 WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS 

whereof have a certain correspondence and relation to 
each other, to such a degree that a man may be able by 
those things which he delivers expressly, to give a guess 
what his opinion is concerning other things of which 
he says nothing 5 it being utterly improbable that he 
should maintain any position which shall manifestly 
clash with his other tenets, or that he should reject any 
thing that necessarily folio weth upon them. But, besides, 
this manner of disputation presupposeth that the belief 
of the ancient Fathers is uniform, no one position con- 
tradicting another, but having all its parts united, and 
depending one upon another, which indeed is very 
questionable, as we shall shew elsewhere. Besides all 
this, I say it requireth a quick discernment, which 
readily and clearly apprehends the connexions of each 
distinct point, an excellent memory to retain faithfully 
whatever positions the ancients have maintained, and a 
solid judgment free from all pre-oceupation,'to compare 
them with the tenets maintained at this day. And the 
man who is endued with all these qualities I shall ac- 
count the fittest to make profitable use of the writings of 
the Fathers, and the likeliest of any to search deeply 
into them. But the mischief is, that men so qualified 
are very rare and difficult to be found. 

I shall add here, that if you will believe certain 
writers of the Church of Rome/ this method is vain and 
useless, as is also that which makes use of argumenta- 
tion and reason ; means which are insufficient, and un- 
able (in the judgment of these doctors) to arrive at any 
certainty, especially in matters of religion. Their 
opinion is, that we are to rely upon clear and express 
texts only. Thus, according to this account, we shall 
not, if we be wise, believe that the Fathers held any of 
the aforenamed points, unless we can find them in ex- k 
press terms in their writings ; that is to say, in the 
very same terms that we read them in the decrees and 
canons of the Council of Trent. Seeing then that, ac- 
cording to the opinion of these men, those testimonies 
only are to be received which are express, and likewise 

* Gontery, Veron, and others. 



OF THE FIRST CENTURIES. 11 

that of these points now controverted there is scarcely 
any thing found expressly delivered by the Fathers, we 
may, in my opinion, very logically and reasonably con- 
clude, that it is at least a very difficult if not impossible 
thing (according to these men) to come to the certain 
knowledge of the opinion of the ancients concerning 
the greatest part of the tenets of the Church of Rome, 
which are at this day rejected by the Protestants. 



12 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 



CHAPTER III, 

REASON III. THAT THOSE WRITINGS WHICH BEAR THE 

NAMES OF THE ANCIENT FATHERS, ARE NOT ALL 
REALLY SUCH \ BUT A GREAT PORTION OF THEM 
SUPPOSITITIOUS,AND FORGED, EITHER LONG SINCE OR 
AT LATER PERIODS. 

I now enter upon more important considerations; the 
two former, though they are not in themselves to be 
despised or neglected, being yet but trivial ones com- 
pared with those which follow. For there is so great a 
confusion in the most part of these books of which we 
speak, that it is a very difficult thing truly to discover 
who were their authors, and what is their meaning and 
sense. The first difficulty proceeds from the infinite 
number of forged books, which are falsely attributed 
to the ancient Fathers ; the same having also happened 
in all kinds of learning and sciences; insomuch that the 
learned at this day are sufficiently puzzled to discover, 
both in philosophy and humanity, which are forged and 
supposititious pieces, and which are true and legitimate. 
But this abuse has not existed any where more grossly, 
and taken to itself more liberty, than in the ecclesiastical 
writers. All men complain of this, both on the one 
side and on the other, and labour to their utmost to de- 
liver us from this confusion, oftentimes with little 
success, by reason of the warmth of their feelings by 
which they are carried away ; ordinarily judging of 
books according to their own interest rather than the 
truth, and rejecting all those that any way contradict 
them, but defending those which speak on their side ; 
how good or bad soever they otherwise chance to be. 
So that, to say the truth, they judge not of their own 
opinions by the writings of the Fathers, but of the 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 13 

writings of the Fathers by their own opinions. If they 
speak with us, it is then Cyprian and Chrysostom ; if 
not, it is some ignorant modern fellow, or else some 
malicious person, who would fain cover his own impu- 
rity under the rich garment of these excellent persons. 
Now, were it mere partiality that rendered the business 
obscure, we should be able to quit our hands of it, by 
stripping it and laying it open to the world ; and all 
moderate men would find enough to rest satisfied with. 
But the worst of it is, that this obscurity oftentimes 
happens to be in the things themselves -, so that it is 
a very difficult and sometimes impossible thing to eluci- 
date them, whether it be by reason of the antiquity of 
the error, or by reason of the near resemblance of the 
false to the true. For these forgeries are not new, and 
of yesterday ; but the abuse hath existed above four- 
teen hundred years. It is the complaint of the greatest 
part of the Fathers, that the heretics, to give their own 
dreams the greater authority, promulgated them under 
the names of some of the most eminent writers in the 
Church, and even of the Apostles themselves.* Amphi- 
lochius bishop of Iconium, who was so much esteemed 
by the great St. Basil archbishop of Caesarea, wrote 
a particular tract on this subject, f alleged by the Fathers 
of the seventh council against a certain passage produced 
by the Iconoclasts out of I know not what idle treatise, 
intituled, " The Travels of the Apostles/' And I would 
to God that that Tract of this learned prelate were now 
extant ! If it were, it would perhaps do us good service 
in discovering the vanity of many ridiculous pieces, 
which now pass current in the world under the names of 
the primitive and most ancient Christians. S. Hierome 
rejecteth divers apocryphal books, J which are publish- 
ed under the names of the Apostles, and of their first 
disciples j as those of St. Peter, of Barnabas, and others. 
The gospel of St. Thomas, and the epistle to the Laodi- 
ceans, are classed in the same category by the seventh 
council. § 

* Hegesippus apud Euseb. L 4. c. 22. 

f Concil. 7. Act 5. torn. 3. p. 552. 

j Hier. 1, de scrip Eccles. torn. 1. p. 346, B. and 350. C. 

§ Concil. 7. Ace 6. 



14 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 

Now, if these knaves have thus taken such liberty with 
the Apostles as to make use of their names ; how much 
more likely is it, that they would not hesitate to make 
as free with the Fathers ? And indeed this kind of im- 
posture hath always been common. Thus we read that 
the Nestorians sometime published an epistle under the 
name of St. Cyril of Alexandria,* in the defence of Theo- 
doras bishop of Mopsuestia, who was the author and 
first broacher of their heresy : and likewise that the 
Eutychists also circulated certain books of Apollinaris, 
under the title of "The Orthodox Doctors," namely, to 
impose on the simplicity of the people, f Leontius 
hath written an express Tract on this subject 3 } wherein 
he shews that these men abused particularly the names 
of St. Gregory of Neocaesarea, of Julius bishop of Rome, 
and of Athanasius bishop of Alexandria ; and he also 
says particularly, that the book intituled, f H /caret nepoc 
Ukttiq (A particular Exposition of the Faith,) which is de- 
livered unto us by Turrianus the Jesuit, Gerardus 
Vossius, and the last edition of Gregorius Neocaesa- 
riensis, for a true and legitimate piece of the said St. 
Gregory § is not truly his, but the bastard issue of the 
heretic Apollinaris. The like judgment do the pub- 
lishers of the Bibliotheca Patrum give of the twelve 
Anathemas, which are commonly attributed to the 
same St. Gregory. || The Monothelites also, taking the 
same course, forged an oration under the name of 
Menas patriarch of Constantinople, and directed to 
Vigilius bishop of Rome : ^[ and two other books under 
the name of the same Vigilius, directed to Justinian and 
Theodora j wherein their heresy is in express terms 
delivered 3 and these three pieces were afterwards in- 
serted in the body of the fifth council, and kept in the 
library of the Patriarch's palace in Constantinople. *** 
But this imposture was discovered and proved in the 

* Concil. 5. Collat. 6. 

j- Marian, ep. ad Mon. Alex, ad calcem Concil. Chalc. t. 2. p. 
450. E. 

I Leont. lib. extat. Bibl. SS. PP. t 4. part 2. 

§ Greg. Thaumat. op. Par. an. 1622, p. 97. ubi vide Voss. 

|| Bibl. SS. PP. t. l. Gr.Lat. 

^ Concil. 6. Act 3. & Acts 14. t. 3. Concil. ** Ibid. 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 15 

sixth council : for otherwise, who would not have been 
deceived by it, seeing these false pieces in so authentic 
a copy ? 

I bring but these few examples, to give the reader 
a sample only of what the heretics not only dared but 
were able also to do in this particular : and all these 
things were done before the end of the seventh century, 
that is to say, above nine hundred years ago. Since 
which time, in all the disputes about the images in 
churches,* and in the differences betwixt the Greek and 
Latin Churches, and indeed in the most part of all other 
ecclesiastical disputations, you shall find nothing more 
frequent than the mutual reproaches that the several 
parties cast at each other,f accusing one another of 
forging the pieces of authors which they produced each 
of them in defence of their own cause. Judge you, 
therefore, whether or not the heretics, using the same 
artifice and the same diligence, now for the space of so 
many centuries since, though in different causes, may 
not in all probability have furnished us with a sufficient 
number of spurious pieces published under the names 
of the ancient Fathers by their professed enemies ? 
And only consider whether or no we may not chance to 
commune with a heretic sometimes, when we think we 
have a Father before us 3 and a professed enemy dis- 
guised under the mask of a friend. Thus it will hence 
follow, that it may justly be feared, that we sometimes 
receive and deliver for maxims and opinions of the 
ancient church, no better than the mere dreams of the 
ancient heretics. For we must suppose that they were 
not so foolish as to discover their venom at the first, in 
their heretical writings ; but rather that they only cun- 
ningly infused here and there some sprinklings of it, 
laying the foundation of their heresy as it were a far off 
only ; which makes the knavery the more difficult to be 
discovered, and consequently the more dangerous. But 
supposing that this juggling deception of the heretics 
may have very much corrupted the old books ; yet not- 
withstanding, had we no other spurious pieces than 

* Concil. 7. Act. 6. Refut. Iconoclast, torn, 5. 
f Concil. Florent. Sess. 20. t. 4. 



16 SUPPOSITITIOUS WHITINGS 

what had been forged by them, it would be no very hard 
matter to distinguish the true from the false. But that 
which renders the evil almost irremediable is, that even 
in the Church itself this kind of forgery has both 
been very common and very ancient. 

I impute a great part of the cause of this mischief to 
those men who, before the invention of printing, were 
the transcribers and copiers of manuscripts : of whose 
negligence and boldness, in the corrupting of books, 
St. Hierome very much complained even in his time : 
" Scribunt (saith he) non quod inveniunt, sed quod in- 
telligunt -, et dum alienos errores emendare nituntur, 
ostendunt suos 3"* that is, they write not what they 
find but what they understand 3 and whilst they en- 
deavour to correct other men's errors they shew their 
own. 

We may very well presume, that the liberty these 
men took in corrupting, they also took the same in 
forging, books : especially since this last course was 
beneficial to them, while the other was not. For, by 
altering or corrupting the books they wrote, they could 
not make any advantage to themselves : whereas, in 
forging new books, and disposing of them under great 
and eminent names, they sold them more readily and 
dearer. So likewise, if there came to their hands any 
book that either had no author's name 3 or having any, 
it was but an obscure or a tainted one 3 to the end that 
these evil marks might not prejudice the selling of it, 
they would erase it without any more ado, and inscribe it 
with some one of the most eminent and venerable names 
in the Church ; that thus the reputation and favour, 
which that name had found in the world, might be a 
means for better passing off their false wares. As 
for example, the name of Novatianus, who was the 
head of a schism against the Roman Church, became 
justly odious to Christian ears : as that of Tertullian 
was the more esteemed, both for the age, wit, and 
learning of the person. Now the transcriber, consider- 
ing this, without any other design or end than that of 
his own private gain, hath, in my judgment, made an 

* Hier. Ep. 28. ad Lucin. torn. 1. 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 1/ 

exchange, attributing to Tertullian that book of the 
Trinity which is in reality the production of Nova- 
tianus ; as we are also given to understand by St. 
Hierome."* And I am of opinion, that both the birth 
and fortune of that other piece, " De Poenitentia," have 
been, if not the very same, yet at least not much unlike 
that of the other. So likewise the book, entitled " De 
Operibus Cardinalibus Christi,"f (which was composed 
and sent by its author to one of the Popes, without 
giving his name, as he there testifies,) has been circu- 
lated abroad under the name of St. Cyprian, merely 
because by this means it was the more profitable to the 
manuscript-monger ; and hath always passed, and doth 
pass, for his ; notwithstanding that, in my judgment, it is 
clear enough that it cannot be his, as is ingenuously 
confessed by many of the learned of both parties. J 
Ruffinus had some name in the Church, though nothing 
near so great as Cyprian had : and this is the reason 
why the afore-named merchants have inscribed with 
S. Cyprian's name that Treatise upon the Apostle's 
Creed, which was written by Ruffinus. 

Besides the avarice of these Librarii, their own igno- 
rance, or at least of those whom they consulted, hath in 
like manner produced no small number of these spu- 
rious pieces. For when either the likeness of the name, 
or of the style, or of the subject treated of, or any other 
seeming reason, gave them occasion to believe that such 
an anonymous book was the work of such or such an 
ancient author, they presently copied it out, under the 
said author's name ; and thus it came from thenceforth 
to be received by the world for such, and by them to be 
transmitted for such to posterity. 

All the blame, however, is not to be laid upon the 
transcribers only in this particular : the authors them- 
selves have contributed very much to the promoting of 

* Hier. Apol. 2. cont. Ruff. 

f Auctor operis, De Operibus Card. Christi, inter Cyprian, oper. 
p. 444. 

f Erasmus in edit. Cyp. sua. Sixtus Senens. Biblioth. 1. 4. Bellar. 
de Euchar. 1. 2. c. 9. De amiss, grat. 1.6. c. 2. Possevin. in Apparat. 
Scult. Medulla Patr. Andr. Rivet. 1. 2. c. 15. Crit. Sacr. Aubert de 
Euchar. 1. 2. ch. 8. 



18 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 

this kind of imposture ; for there have been found in 
all ages some so sottishly ambitious ; and so desirous, 
at any rate, to have their conceptions published to the 
world 3 that, finding they should never be able to please, 
and get applause abroad of themselves, they have issued 
them under the name of some of the Fathers 5 choosing 
rather to see them received and honoured under this 
false guise, than disguised and slighted under their own 
real name. These men, according as their several 
abilities have been, have imitated the style and senti- 
ments of the Fathers either more or less happily ; and 
have boldly presented these productions of their own 
brain to the world under their names. The world, of 
which the greatest part has always been the least re- 
flecting, has very readily collected, preserved, and 
cherished these fictitious productions, and has by de- 
grees filled all their libraries with them. Others have 
been induced to adopt the same artifice, not out of 
ambition, but some other irregular fancy -, as those men 
have done, who, having had a particular affection, 
either to such a person, or to such an opinion, have 
undertaken to write of the same, under the name of 
some author of good esteem and reputation with the 
world, to make it pass the more currently abroad : pre- 
cisely as that Priest did, who published a book, entitled 
** The Acts of St. Paul, and of Tecla $"* and being con- 
victed of being the author of it, in the presence of 
St. John, he plainly confessed, that the love that he 
bare to St. Paul was the only cause that incited him to 
do it. Such was the boldness also of Ruffinus, a priest 
of Aquileia, (whom St. Hierome justly reprehendeth so 
sharply, and in so many placesf), who, to vindicate 
Origen's honour, wrote an apology for him, under the 
name of Pamphilus, a holy and renowned martyr ; 
although the truth of it is, he had taken it, partly out 
of the first and sixth books that Eusebius had written 
upon the same subject, and partly made use of his own 



* Hier. de Script. Eccl. torn. l. p. 350. ex Tertul. lib. de Bap- 
tisma, cap. 17. 

+ Hier. 1. 2. Apol. contr. Ruffin. torn. 2. p. 334. etEp. 69. t. 2. et 
Apol. contr. Ruff, ad Puininach. et. Marc. torn. 2. 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 19 

invention in it. Some similar fancy it was that moved 
him also to put forth the life of one Sextus, a Pythago- 
rean philosopher, under the name of St. Sixtus the 
martyr,* to the end that the work might he received 
the more favourably. What can you say to this : 
namely, that in the very same age there was a personage 
of greater note than the former ; who, disliking that 
Hierome had translated the Old Testament out of the 
Hebrew, framed an epistle under his name, wherein he 
represents him as repenting of having done it ; which 
epistle, even in St. Hierome's life time, though without 
his knowledge, was published by the said author, both 
at Rome and in Africa? Who could believe the truth 
of this bold attempt, had not St. Hierome himself 
related the story, and made complaint of the injury 
done him therein ?f I must impute also to a fancy of 
the same kind, though certainly more innocent than the 
other, the spreading abroad of so many predictions of 
our Saviour Jesus Christ, and His kingdom, under the 
names of the Sibyls ; which was done by some of the 
first Christians, only to prepare the Pagans to relish 
this doctrine the better -, as it is objected against them 
by Celsus in Origen. J But that which is yet of greater 
consequence is, that even the Fathers themselves have 
sometimes made use of this artifice, to promote either 
their own opinions or their wishes. Of this we have 
a notable example, which was objected against the 
Latins by the Greeks, above two hundred years since, 
of two Bishops of Rome, Zozimus and Boniface ;§ who, 
to authorize the title which they pretended to have, of 
being universal bishops, and heads of the whole Chris- 
tian Church, and particularly of the African, forged, 
about the beginning of the fifth century, certain canons 
in the council of Nice, and frequently quoted them as 
such in the councils in Africa j|| which, notwithstand- 
ing, after a long and diligent search, could never yet be 
found in any of the authentic copies of the said council 

* Hier. in Ierem. com. 4. torn. 4. 

+ Hier. 1, 2. Apol. contra Ruff. torn. 2. 

\ Orig. contra Cels. lib. 7. § Concil. Flor. Sess. 2. p. 457. 

H Concil. Atric. 6. cap. 3. 



20 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 

of Nice, although the African bishops had taken the 
pains to send as far as Constantinople, Alexandria, and 
Antioch, to obtain the best and most genuine copies 
they could. Neither indeed do the canons and acts 
of the council of Nice at this day, though they have 
since that time passed through so many various hands, 
contain any such thing ; no, not even the editions of 
those very men who are the most interested in the 
honour of the Popes, as that of Dionysius Exiguus, who 
published his Latin collection of them about the year 
of our Saviour 525 : nor any other, either ancient or 
modern. 

As to that authentic copy of the council of Nice, 
which one Friar John, at the council of Florence, pre- 
tended to have been the only copy that had escaped the 
corruptions of the Arians,* and which had for this 
cause been always kept under lock and key at Rome, 
with all the safety and care that might be, (out of which 
copy they had transcribed the said canons,) I confess 
it must needs have been kept up very close, under locks 
and seals, seeing that three of their Popes, namely, 
Zozimus, Boniface, and Celestine, could never be able 
to produce it for the justification of their pretended 
title against the African Fathers, though in a case 
of so great importance. And it is a strange thing 
to me that this man, who came a thousand years after, 
should now at last make use of it in this cause ; whereas 
those very persons who had it in their custody never so 
much as mentioned one syllable of it : which is an evi- 
dent argument that the seals of this rare book w T ere 
never opened, save only in the brains of this Doctor, 
where alone it was both framed and sealed up ; brought 
forth, and vanished all at the same instant ; the greatest 
part of those men that have come after him being 
ashamed to make use of it any longer, having laid aside 
this chimerical invention. To say the truth, that which 
these men answer, by way of excusing the said Popes, is 
not any whit more probable, namely, that they took the 
council of Nice and that of Sardica, in which those 
canons they allege are really found, for one and the 

* Concil. Flor. Sees. 20. 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 21 

same council. For whom will these men ever be able to 
persuade, that two Ecclesiastical Assemblies, (between 
which there passed nearly twenty-two whole years, 
called by two several emperors, and for matters of a far 
different nature, — the one of them for the explanation of 
the Christian faith, and the other for the re-establishing 
of two Bishops on their thrones, and in places very far 
distant from each other, — the one at Nicsea in Bithynia, 
the other at Sardica a city of Illyricum, — the canons of 
which two councils are very different, both in sub- 
stance, number, and authority, — the one of them having 
always been received generally by the whole Church, 
but the other having never been acknowledged by the 
Eastern Church,) should yet, notwithstanding, be but one 
and the same council ? How can they themselves endure 
this, who are so fierce against the Greeks, for having 
offered to attribute (which they do, notwithstanding, 
with more appearance of truth) to the sixth council, 
those 102 canons, which were agreed upon ten years 
after at Constantinople, in an assembly wherein one 
party of the Fathers of the sixth council met ? How 
came it to pass, that they gave any credit to the ancient 
Church, seeing that in the Greek collection of her 
ancient canons, those of the council of Sardica are 
entirely omitted 3 and in the Latin collection of Diony- 
sius Exiguus, compiled at Rome eleven hundred years 
since, they are placed, not with those of the council of 
Nice, or immediately after, as making one entire collec- 
tion with them 5 but after the canons of all the general 
councils that had been held till that very time he lived 
in ?* And how comes it to pass that these ancient 
Popes, who quoted these canons, if they believed these 
councils to be both one, did not say s ? 

The African bishops had frequently declared that 
these canons, w 7 hich were by them referred to, were not 
at all to be found in their copies. Certainly therefore, if 
those who had cited them had thought the council of 
Nice and that of Sardica to have been both but one 
council, they w T ould no doubt have made answer, that 
these canons were to be found in this pretended second 

* Codex Can. Ec. Un. Dionys. Exig. p. 99- 



22 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 

part of the council of Nice, among those which had been 
agreed upon at Sardica : especially when they saw that 
these careful Fathers, for the clearing of the controversy 
between them, had resolved to send, for this purpose, as 
far as Constantinople and Alexandria. And yet, not- 
withstanding all this, they do not utter a word on the 
subject. 

Certainly if the canons of the council of Sardica had 
been in those days reputed as a part of the council of 
Nice, it is a very strange thing, that so many learned 
and religious prelates as there were at that time in 
Africa, (as Aurelius, Alypius, and even S. Augustine, 
that glorious light, not of the African only but of the 
whole ancient Church,) should have been so ignorant in 
this particular. But it is strange beyond all belief, that 
three Popes and their Legates should leave their party 
in ignorance so gross, and so prejudicial to their own 
interest 5 it being in their power to have relieved them 
in two words. We may safely then conclude, that these 
Popes, Zozimus and Boniface, had no other copies of 
the council of Nice than what we have ; and also, that 
they did not believe that the canons of the council of 
Sardica were a part of the council of Nice ; but that 
they rather purposely quoted some of the canons of 
Sardica, under the name of the canons of the council of 
Nice. And this they did, according to that maxim 
which was in force with those of former times, and is 
not entirely laid aside even in our own, that for the 
advancing of a good and godly cause, it is lawful some- 
times to use a little deceit, and to have recourse to 
what are called pious frauds. As they therefore firmly 
believed that the supremacy of their see over all other 
Churches, was a business of great importance, and 
would be very profitable to all Christendom, we are not 
to wonder if, for the establishing this right to them- 
selves, they made use of a little legerdemain, in adduc- 
ing Sardica for Nice : reflecting that if they brought 
their design about, this little failing of theirs would, in 
process of time, be abundantly repaired by the benefit 
and excellency of the thing itself. 

Notwithstanding the opposition made by the African 
Fathers against the Church of Rome, Pope Leo, not 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 23 

many years after, writing to the emperor Theodosius,* 
omitted not to make use of the old forgery, citing one 
of the canons of the council of Sardica, for a legi- 
timate canon of the council of Nice - } which was the 
cause, that the emperor Valentinian also, and his em- 
press Galla Placidia, writing in behalf of the said Pope 
Leo to the emperor Theodosius,f affirmed to him for a 
certain truth, that both all antiquity, and the canons of 
the council of Nice also, had assigned to the Pope of 
Rome the power of judging of points of faith, and of 
the prelates of the Church 5 Leo having before allowed 
that this canon of the council of Sardica was one of the 
canons of Nice. And thus, by a strong perseverance in 
this pious fraud, they have at length so fully persuaded 
a great part of Christendom, that the council of Nice 
had established this supremacy of the Pope of Rome, 
that it is now generally urged by all of them whenever 
this point is controverted. 

I must request the reader's pardon for having so long 
insisted on this particular ; and perhaps somewhat 
longer <han my design required: yet, in my judgment, 
it may be of no small importance to the business in 
hand ; for (will the Protestants here say) seeing that 
two Popes, Bishops, and Princes, which all Christians 
have approved, have notwithstanding thus foisted in 
false wares, what ought we to expect from the rest of 
the Bishops and Doctors ? Since these men have done 
this, in the beginning of the fifth century, an age of so 
high repute for its faith and doctrine, what have they 
not dared to do in the succeeding ages ? If they have 
not forborne so foully to abuse the sacred name of the 
council of Nice, (the most illustrious and venerable 
monument of Christianity next to the Holy Scriptures), 
what other authors can we imagine they would spare ? 
And if, in the face of so renowned an assembly, (and in 
the presence of whatever Africa could shew of eminency, 
both for sanctity and learning, and even under the eye 
of the great St. Augustine too,) they had no compunc- 



* Leo in ep. ad Theodos. Imp. torn. 2 Concil. 
t Valentin, in ep. ad Theodos. torn. 2. Concil. Galla Placid, in ep. 
ad Theodos. torn. 2. 



24 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 

tions of conscience in making use of so gross a piece of 
forgery ; what have they not since, in these later times, 
while the whole world for so many ages lay covered with 
thick darkness, dared to do ? But as for my part I shall 
neither accuse nor excuse at present these men's pro- 
ceedings, but shall only conclude, that, seeing the writ- 
ings of the Fathers, before they came to us, have passed 
through the hands of those who have sometimes been 
found to use these juggling tricks, it is not so easy a 
matter, as people may imagine, to discover, oat of those 
writings which now pass under the names of the Fathers, 
what their opinions were. 

Similar motives produced the very same effects in the 
fifth council ;* where a letter, forged under the name of 
Theodoret, respecting the death of S. Cyril, was read, 
and by a general silence approved by the whole assembly; 
which, notwithstanding, was so evidently spurious, that 
those very men, who caused the body of the general 
councils to be printed at Rome, have convicted it of 
falsehood, and branded it as spurious. 

Such another precious piece is that foolish story of a 
miracle, wrought by an image of our Saviour Christ in 
the city Berytus, which is related in very ample man- 
ner in the 7th council,! and bears, forsooth, the name of 
S. Athanasius ; but is indeed so tasteless a piece, and 
so unworthy the gallantry and clearness of that great 
wit, that he must not be thought to have common sense 
who can find in his heart to attribute it to him. There- 
fore we see that, notwithstanding the authority of this 
council, both Nannius, Bellarmine, and Possevine have 
plainly confessed that it was not written by Athana- 
sius.^: 

I shall place in this rank the so much vaunted deed 
of the donation of Constantine, which hath for so long 
a time been accounted as a most valid and authentic 
evidence, and hath also been inserted in the decrees, 
and so pertinaciously maintained by the Bishop of 

* Concil. 5. Act. 5. torn. 2. Concil. 
f Concil. 7. Act. 4. torn. 3. Concil. 

f Nanni. in edit. op. Athan. Bellar. de imag. 1. 2. c. 10. et lib. de 
Script. Eccles. in Athan. Possevin. in appar. in Athan. 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 25 

Agobio, against the oppositions of Laurentius Valla. * 
Certainly those very men, who at this day maintain the 
donation, do notwithstanding disclaim this evidence as 
a piece of forgery. 

Of the same nature are the epistles attributed to the 
first Popes,t as Clemens, Anacletus, Euaristus, Alexan- 
der, Sixtus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, Anicetus, and 
others, down to the times of Siricius ; that is to say, to 
the year of our Saviour 385, which the world read, un- 
der these venerable titles, at the least for eight hundred 
years together ; and by which have been decided, to the 
advantage of the Church of Rome, very many contro- 
versies, and especially the most important of all the 
rest, that of the Pope's monarchy. This sheweth plain 
enough the motive, (shall I call it such !) or rather the 
purposed design of the trafficker that first circulated 
them. The greatest part of these are accounted forged 
by men of learning, as Henricus, Kaltheisen, Nicolas 
Cusanus, Jo. de Turrecremata (both cardinals), Erasmus, 
Jo. Driedo, Claudius Espensaeus, Cassander, Simon 
Vigor, Baronius, and others :} for indeed their forgery 
appears clear enough from their barbarous style, the 
errors met with at every step in the computation of 
times and history, the pieces they are patched up of, 
stolen here and there out of different authors, whose 
books we have at this day to shew ; and also by the 
general silence of all the writers of the eight first cen- 
turies, among whom there is not one word mentioned 
of them. 

Now I shall not here meddle at all with the six or 
seven last centuries ; where, in regard to various articles 
of faith, most eagerly professed and established b} r 
them, there hath been more need than ever of the 
assistance of the ancients -, and whereas, owing to the 

* D. 96. C . Constantino nostro. 14. Augusti. Steuchius de Dona. 
Constant. 

f Baron in annal. Melchior Canus locor. Theolog. 1. 11. p. 511. 

% Hen. Kaltheis. ap. Magdeb. cent. 2. Nic. Cusan. Cone. Cath. 1. 2. 
c. 34. Io. de Turrecr. de Eccl. lib. 2. c. 101. Io. Driedo de dogm. 
et Scrip. Eccl. 1. i.e. 2. CI. Espens. de Contin. 1. I.e. 2. G. Cas- 
sand. defens. lib. de officio pii viri, p. 843. Sim. Yig. ex resp. 
Syn. Basil. &c. en la lettre eontr. Durand. Baron Annal. t. 2. 
an. 102, et an. 865. 

C 



26 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 

dark ignorance of those times, and the scarcity of op- 
posers, they had much better opportunity than before, to 
forge what books they pleased. This abuse the world 
was never free from, till the times [of the light broke 
forth in the last century ; when Erasmus gives us an ac- 
count,* how he himself had discovered one of these 
wretched knaves, whose ordinary practice it was to lay 
his own eggs in another man's nest, putting his own 
fooleries on S. Hierome particularly, and on S. Augus- 
tine and S. Ambrose. And who knows what those 
many books be, that are daily issued out of the self- 
same shops, that of old were wont to furnish the world 
with these kind of deceptions ? Is it not very probable 
that both the will and the dexterity in forging and 
issuing these false wares, will rather in these days in- 
crease than abate in the professors of this trade ? So 
that (if besides what the malice [of the heretics, the 
avarice and ignorance of transcribers of manuscripts, 
and the ambition and affection of men have brought 
forth of this kind, there have yet so many others turned 
their endeavours this way, and that in a manner all 
along for the space of the last fourteen hundred years, 
although they had their several ends,) we are not to 
wonder at all if now, in this last age, we see such a 
strange number of writings falsely fathered upon the 
ancients -, which, if they were all put together, would 
make little less than a fourth or a fifth part of the works 
of the Fathers. 

I am not ignorant that the learned have noticed a 
great number of them, and do ordinarily cast them 
into the later tomes of editions ; and that some have 
written whole books upon this subject ; as Ant. Posse- 
vine's Apparatus. Bellarmine's Catalogue, Scultetus' 
Medulla Patrum, Rivet's Critic, and the like, both of the 
one and the other religion. But who can assure us that 
they have not forgotten anything they should have 
noted ? Besides that it is a new labour, and almost 
equal to the former, to read so many books of the mo- 
derns as now exist. And when all is done, we are not 
immediately to rest satisfied with their judgment with- 

* Erasm. prsefat. in Hieron. 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. <27 

out a due examination. For each of them having been 
prepossessed with the prejudices of the party in which 
they were brought up, before they took this work in 
hand, who shall assure us that they have not delivered 
anything, in this case, in favour of their own particular 
interest, as we have before noticed ? The justness of 
this suspicion is so clear, that I presume that no man, 
any way versed in these matters, will desire me to prove 
my assertion. Neither shall I need to give any other 
reason for it, than the conflicts and disagreement in 
judgments which we may observe in these men : the one 
of them oftentimes letting pass for pure metal what the 
other perhaps will throw by for dross 5 which differences 
are found not only between those that are of quite oppo- 
site religions, but, which is more, even between those 
that are of the self- same persuasion. 

Those whom we named not long before, who were all 
of the Roman Church, deprecate, as we have said, the 
greatest part of the decretals of the first Popes. Fran- 
ciscus Turrianus, a Jesuit, receives them, and defends 
them all, in a tract written by him to that purpose. 
Baronius calls the Recognitions, which are attributed to 
Clemens Romanus, "A gulf of filth and uncleanness ; 
full of prodigious lies and frantic fooleries."* Bellar- 
mine says that his book was written either by Clemens 
or some other author as learned and as ancient as him- 
self, t Some of them consider those fragments, published 
by Nicol. Faber, under the name of St. Hilary, as good 
and genuine productions ; and some others again reject 
them. Erasmus, Sixtus Senensis, Melchior Canus, and 
Baronius, are of opinion that the book " Of the Nativity 
of the Virgin Mary/' is falsely attributed toJSt. Hierome. 
Christophorus a Castro, a Spanish Jesuit, maintains the 
contrary. Cardinal Cajetan, Laurentius Valla, Eras- 
mus, and some others, hold the books of Dionysius the 
Areopagite, as suspected and spurious. Baronius, and 
almost all the rest of their writers, maintain that they 



* Baron. x\.nnal. torn. 1. an. 51. 

f Nos fatemur librum esse corrupttim, &c. Sed tamen vel esse 
Clementis Roraani, vel alterius seque docti ac antiqui. — Bellar, de lib. 
arbit. t. 5. c. 25. 

c 2 



28 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 

are true and legitimate. Turrianus, Bovin, and some 
others, recommend to us the " Constitutions of the 
Apostles/' as a genuine production : but Baronius, Pos- 
sevine, Petavius, and a great many others, speak doubt- 
fully of them. 

We find in the writings of those of the Church of Rome 
an infinite variety of different judgments in such cases as 
these. He that desires to furnish himself with examples 
of this kind, may have recourse to their books, and par- 
ticularly to the writings of the late Cardinal Perron, 
who differs as much from the rest, in this point of cri- 
ticism, as he doth for the most part of the method he 
observes in his disputations. Now I would willingly be 
informed what a man should do, amidst these diversities 
of judgment 5 and what path he should take, where he 
meets with such disagreeing guides. 

Yet suppose that these authors have done their utmost 
endeavour in this design, without any particular affec- 
tion or partiality ; how, notwithstanding, shall we be 
satisfied concerning their capability for the performance 
of their undertaking ? Is it a light business, think you, 
to bring the whole stock of antiquity to the crucible, 
and there to purify and refine it, and to separate all the 
dross from it, which hath so deeply, and for the space 
of so many ages, been not only, as it were, tied and 
fastened on to it, but even thoroughly mixed, united, 
and incorporated w ith it ? This work requireth the 
most clear and refined judgment that can be imagined ; 
an exquisite wit, a quick piercing eye, a perfect ear, a 
most exact knowledge in all history, both ancient and 
modern, ecclesiastical and secular ; a perfect knowledge 
of the ancient 'tongues ; and a long and continued ac- 
quaintance with all kinds of writers, ancient, mediaeval, 
and modern, to be able to judge of their opinions, and 
which way their pulse beats : to understand rightly the 
manner of their expression, invention, and method in 
writing : each age, each nation, and each author, having 
in all thesa things their own peculiar ways. Now such 
a man as this is hardly produced in a whole age. 

As for those men whp in our times have taken upon 
them this department of criticism, who knows, who 
sees not, that only reads them, how many of the quali- 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 29 

fications just enumerated are wanting in them ? But 
suppose that such a man were to be found, and that he 
should take in hand this discovery, I do verily believe 
that he would be able very easily to find out the impos- 
ture of a bungling fool, that had ill counterfeited the 
stamp, colour, and weight, in the work which he would 
father upon some other man ; or that should, for ex- 
ample, endeavour to represent St. Hierome or St. 
Chrysostom with a stammering tongue, and should 
make them speak barbarous language, bad Latin, and 
bad Greek ; or else perhaps should make use of such 
terms, things, or authors, as were not known to the 
world, till a long time after these men ; or should make 
them treat of matters far removed from the age they 
lived in, and maintain opinions which they never thought 
of; or reject those, which they are notoriously known 
to have held : and of this sort, for the most part, are 
those pieces which our critics have decried, and noted 
as spurious. But if a man should chance to bring him 
a piece of some able master, that should have fully and 
exactly learned both the language, history, manners, 
alliances, and quarrels of the family into which he hath 
boldly obtruded himself, and should be able to make 
happy use of all these, be assured that our Aristarchus 
would be here as much puzzled to discover this juggler, 
as they were once in France, to prove the impostures of 
Martin Guerre. 

Now how can we imagine, but that among so many 
several persons, that have for their several purposes 
employed their utmost endeavours in these kinds of 
forgeries, there must needs have been, in so many cen- 
turies of years, very many able men, who have had the 
skill so artificially to copy the manner and style of 
the persons whom they imitate, as to render it impossible 
to discover them ? Especially, if they made choice of 
such a name, as w r as the only thing remaining in the 
world of that author ; so that there is no mark left us, 
either of his style, discourse, or opinions, to guide us in 
our examination. And therefore in my judgment he 
was a very cunning fellow, and made a right choice, 
that undertook to write, under the name of Dionysius 
the Areopagite ; for, noV having any true legitimate 



30 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 

piece of this author left us, by which we may examine 
the cheat, the discovery must needs be difficult ; and it 
would have proved so much the more hard, if he had 
but used a more modest and less swelling manner of 
expression : whereas for those others, who in the ages 
following made bold with the names of St. Hierome, St. 
Cyprian, St. Augustin, and the like, (of whose legiti- 
mate writings we have very many pieces left us), a man 
may know them at the first sight, merely by their style $ 
those Gothic and rude spirits being no more able to 
counterfeit the graces and elegances of these great au- 
thors, than an ass is to imitate the warblings of the 
nightingale. 

I confess there is another help, which, in my judg- 
ment, may better answer our purpose in this particular 
than all the rest -, namely, the light and direction of the 
ancients themselves : who oftentimes make mention of 
other writers of the Church, that lived either before or 
in their own times ; St. Hierome, among the Latins, hav- 
ing taken the pains to make a catalogue of all those 
with whose names and writings he was acquainted, from 
the apostles' to his own time, which was afterwards 
continued by Gennadius. To this we may also add that 
incomparable work of the patriarch Photius, which he 
calls his Bibliotheca, and which is now published in this our 
age ; w r here this great person hath given us his judgment 
of most of the authors of the Greek Church. Now this 
aid we may make use of in two different ways -, the one 
in justifying a book, if it be found mentioned by these 
authors -, the other in rejecting it, if they say nothing 
of it. As for the first of these, it concludes only accord- 
ing to the quality of the authors who make mention of 
a suspected book. For some of the Fathers themselves 
have made use of these kinds of forgeries, as we have 
formerly said ; others have favoured them because they 
served their turn : some have not been able to discover 
them -, and some others have not been willing to do so, 
whatsoever their reason hath been. 

I shall not here repeat the names of any of those who 
have done these things themselves. As for those that 
have favoured them, there are numerous examples ; as 
Justin Martyr, Theophilus, and others, who adduce the 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 31 

Sybils' verses as oracles ; the greatest part of which, not- 
withstanding, are forged. As to Clemens Alexandrinus, 
the most learned and most polished of all the Fathers, 
in St. Hierome's judgment,* how often doth he make use 
of those apocryphal pieces, which go under the names 
of the Apostles and disciples, to whom they were most 
falsely attributed ; citing, under the name of Barnabas,f 
and of Hermes, J such writings as have been forged 
under their names ? And did not the 7th council in 
like manner make use of a supposititious piece, attributed 
to Athanasius, as we have shewn before j and likewise 
of divers others, which are of the same stamp? 

That even the Fathers themselves therefore have not 
been able always to make a true discovery of these false 
wares, no man can doubt j considering that of those 
many necessary qualifications, which we enumerated 
before, as requisite in this particular, they may often- 
times have failed in some. St, Hierome himself, the 
most knowing man among all the Latin Fathers, espe- 
cially in matters of this nature, sometimes lets them 
pass without examination : as where he speaks of a cer- 
tain tract against mathematicians, attributed to Minu- 
tius Fcelix, "If at least (saith he) the inscription repre- 
sent unto us the right author of the book."§ In another 
place, whatsoever his reason was, he delivers to us, for 
legitimate pieces, the epistles that go under the 
name of St. Paul to Seneca, and of Seneca to St. Paul;|| 
which, notwithstanding, Cardinal Baronius holds for sus- 
pected and spurious, as doubtless they are„^[ But even 
those men who have been able to discover these false 
pieces have not sometimes been willing to do it ; either 
being unwilling to offend the authors of them, or else 
not daring to cast any disrepute upon those books which, 
having many good things in them, had not in their judg- 
ment maintained any false or dangerous positions. 
This is the reason why they chose to let such things 
pass, rather than, out of a little tenderness of conscience, 
to oppose them : there being, in their apprehension, no 

* Hier. ep. 84. ad Magn. torn. 2. f Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 2. 
X Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 1. & 1. 2. et alibi passim. 
§ Hier. ep. 84. ad Magn. torn. 2. || Id. in Catal. torn. 1. 

^f Baron. Annal. torn. 1. an. 66. 



32 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 

danger at all in the one, but much trouble and invidi- 
ousness in the other. Therefore I am of opinion, that 
St. Hierome, for example, would never have taken the 
pains, nor have undergone the invidiousness, of laying 
open the forgeries of Ruffinus, if the misunderstanding 
that happened to be between them, had not urged him 
to it. Neither do I believe that the African Fathers 
would ever have troubled themselves to prove the false 
allegation of Zozimus, but for their own interest, which 
was thereby called into question. For wise and sober men 
are never wont to fall into variance with any without 
necessity : neither do they quickly take notice of any 
injury or abuse offered them, unless it be a very great 
one, and such as hath evident danger in it : which 
was not at all perceived or taken notice of at first, in 
these forgeries, that have nevertheless at length, by 
little and little, in a manner borne down all the good 
and legitimate works. 

These considerations, in my opinion, make it clearly 
appear, that the title of a book is not sufficiently justi- 
fied by a passage or two being cited out of it by some 
of the ancients, and under the same name. As for the 
other way, which rendereth the authority of a book 
doubtful, from the ancients not having made any men- 
tion of it, I confess it is no more demonstrative than 
the other : as it is not impossible, that any one, or di- 
vers of the Fathers, may not have met with such a cer- 
tain writer that was then extant : or else perhaps that 
they might omit some one of those very authors which 
they knew. Yet this is, notwithstanding, the much 
surer way of the two : there being less danger in this 
case, in rejecting a true piece, than in receiving a forged 
one j the want of the truth of the one being doubtless 
much less prejudicial than the receiving the opposite 
falsehood of the other. For as it is a less sin to omit 
the good, than to commit the evil that is opposed to it; 
in like manner is it a less error, not to believe a truth 
than to believe the falsehood which is contrary to it. 
And thus we see what confusion there is in the books 
of the ancients, and what defect in the means which is 
requisite in distinguishing the false from the true : inso- 
much that, as it often happens, it is much easier to judge 



ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 33 

what we ought to reject, than to resolve upon what we 
may safely receive. Let the reader therefore now judge, 
whether or not these writings, having come down through 
so many ages, and passed through so many hands, 
which are either known to have been notoriously guilty, 
or at least strongly suspected of forgery, — the truth in 
the mean time having made on its part but very weak 
resistance against these impostures, — it be not a very 
difficult matter to discover, amidst the infinite number 
of books that are now extant, and go under the names 
of the Fathers, which are those that truly belong to 
them, and which, again, are those that are falsely im- 
posed upon them. And if it be so hard a matter to 
discover in gross only which are the writings of the 
Fathers, how much more difficult a business will it be 
to find out what their opinions are, on the several con- 
troversies now in agitation. We are not to imagine, 
that it is no great matter, from which of the Fathers 
such an opinion has sprung, so that it came from any 
one of them : for there is altogether as much difference 
amongst these ancient doctors, both in respect of au- 
thority, learning, and goodness, as among the modern. 
Besides that, an age being higher or lower either raises 
or lessens the repute of these writings, in the esteem 
both of the one party and of the other, as it were so 
many grains as years : and certainly not altogether 
without good reason ; it being most evident to any one 
that has been but the least versed in the reading of 
these books, that time has by degrees introduced very 
great alterations, as well in the doctrine and discipline 
of the ancients, as in all other things. 

Our conclusion therefore must be, that if any one 
shall desire to know what the sense and judgment of 
the primitive Church has been, as regards our present 
controversies, it will be first in a manner as necessary 
for him as it is difficult, exactly to find out both the 
name and the age of each of these several authors. 



c 5 






34 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 



CHAPTER IV. 

REASON IV. — THAT THE WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS, 
WHICH ARE CONSIDERED LEGITIMATE, HAVE BEEN IN 
MANY PLACES CORRUPTED BY TIME, IGNORANCE, 
AND FRAUD, PIOUS AND MALICIOUS, BOTH IN THE 
EARLY AND LATER AGES. 

But now suppose that you have, by long and judicious 
investigation, separated the true and genuine writings 
of the Fathers, from the spurious and forged ; there 
would yet rest upon you a second task, the result of 
which is likely to prove much more doubtful, and more 
replete with difficulty, than the former. For it would 
behove you, in the next place, in reading over those 
authors which you acknowledge as legitimate, to distin- 
guish what is the author's own, and what has been 
foisted in by another hand 5 and also to restore to your 
author whatsoever either by time or fraud has been 
taken away, and to take out of him whatsoever has 
been added by either of these two. Otherwise you will 
never be able to assure yourself that you have discovered, 
out of these books, what the true and proper meaning 
and sense of your author has been ; considering the 
great alterations that in various ways they may have 
suffered at different times. 

I shall not here speak of those errors which have 
been produced by the ignorance of the transcribers, 
u who write," as Hierome hath complained of them, 
'• not what they find, but what themselves understand:* 
nor yet of those faults which necessarily have grown up 

•* Hier. ep. 2S. ad. Lucin. torn. l. 






WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 35 

out of the very transcribing ; it being impossible that 
books which have been copied out an infinite number of 
times, during the space of ten or twelve centuries, by 
men of different capacities and hand- writing, should all 
this while retain exactly and in every particular the 
self same style, the same form and body, that they 
had when they first came forth from the author's own 
hand. 

I shall say nothing of the damage sustained by these 
books from moths and a thousand other injuries of 
time, by which they have been corrupted ; while all kinds 
of learning, for so many ages together, lay buried as it 
were in the grave -, the worms on one side feeding on 
the books of the learned, and on the other, the dust de- 
facing them ; so that it is impossible now to restore them 
to their first condition. This is the fate that all kinds of 
books have been exposed to ; whence has originated so 
many various readings found almost in all authors. I 
shall not here take any advantage of this; though there are 
some doctors in the world that have shewed us the way 
to do it 5 with the intention of lessening the authority 
that the Holy Scriptures of themselves ought to have in 
the esteem of all men 5 under that plea, that even in 
these sacred writings there are sometimes found various 
readings, which yet are of very little or no importance 
as to the grouud-work. If we would tread in these 
men's steps, and apply to the writings of the Fathers 
what they say and conclude of the Scriptures, we could 
do it upon much better terms than they ; there being no 
reason on earth to imagine but that the books of the 
ancient writers have suffered very much more than the 
Scriptures have, which have always been preserved in 
the Church with much greater care than any other books, 
and which have been learnt by all nations, and trans- 
lated into all languages ; which all sects have retained, 
both Orthodox and Heretics, Catholics and Schismatics, 
Greeks and Latins, Moscovites and Ethiopians ; each 
observing diligently the revisions and transcriptions of 
the other 5 so that there could not possibly happen any 
remarkable alteration in them, without the whole world 
as it were instantly exclaiming against it, and making 
their complaints to resound throughout the universe 



36 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

Whereas, on the contrary, the writings of the Fathers 
have been kept transcribed, and read in as careless a 
manner as could be : and that too but by very few, and 
in few places : being but rarely understood by any, save 
those of the same language ; this being the cause that 
so many faults have the more easily crept into them, 
and likewise that they are the more difficult to be dis- 
covered. Besides that, the particular style and obscu- 
rity of some of them render the errors the more im- 
portant. As for example, take a Tertullian, and you 
will find that one little word added or taken away, or 
altered ever so little, or a full-point or comma put out of 
its place, will so confound the sense, that you will not 
be able to discover his meaning : whereas in books of 
an easy, smooth, clear style, as the Scriptures for the 
most part are, these faults are much less prejudicial ; 
for they cannot in anywise so darken the sense but that 
it will be still easy enough to comprehend it. 

Bui I shall pass by all these minute punctilios, as 
more suitable to the inquiries or the Pyrrhonians and 
Academics, whose business it is to question all things, 
than of Christians who only seek, in simplicity and sin- 
cerity of heart, whereon to build their faith. I shall 
only here take notice of such alterations as have been 
knowingly and voluntarily made in the writings of the 
Fathers, purposely by our holding our peace to disguise 
their sense, or else to make them speak more than they 
meant. This forgery is of two sorts, the one has been 
made use of with a good intention, the other out of 
malice. Again, the one has been committed in times 
long since past, the other in this last age, in our own 
days and the days of our fathers. Lastly, the one is 
in the additions made to authors, to make them speak 
more than they meant j the other, in subtracting from 
the author, to eclipse and darken what he would be un- 
derstood to say. Neither ought we to wonder, that 
even those of the honest, innocent primitive times also 
made use of these deceits 5 seeing that, for a good end, 
they made no great scruple to forge whole books, 
taking a much stranger and bolder course, in my opi- 
nion, than the other. For without doubt it is a greater 
crime to coin false money, than to clip or alter the true. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 37 

This opinion, has always been in the world, that to fix a 
certain estimation upon that which is good and true, 
(that is to say, upon what we account to be such), it is 
necessary that we remove out of the way whatso- 
ever may be a hindrance to it, and that there can be 
no great danger either in putting in, or at least in leav- 
ing any thing in, that may yield assistance to it ; what- 
soever the issue of either of these may in the end prove 
to be. Hence hath it come to pass, that we have so many 
ancient forgeries, and so many strange stories of mi- 
racles and of visions ; many taking a delight in feigning 
(as St.Hierome says) " Great combats which they have 
had with devds in deserts,"* all of which are merely 
fabulous in themselves, and acknowledged to be so by 
the most intelligent of them. Yet, notwithstanding, 
they are tolerated, and sometimes also recommended to 
them, as they account them useful, for the settling or 
increasing the faith or devotion of the people. 

What will you say, if at this day there are some 
even of those men who make profession of being the 
greatest haters in the world of these subtilties, who 
cannot nevertheless put forth any book, without lopping 
off or falsifying whatsoever does not wholly agree with 
the doctrine they hold for true ; fearing, as they say, 
lest such things, coming to the eye of the simple com- 
mon people, might infect them, and possess their heads 
with new fancies. So firmly has this opinion been of 
old rooted in the nature of man. 

Now I will not here dispute whether this proceeding 
of theirs be lawful or not. I shall only say by the way 
that in my judgment it is shameful for the truth to be 
established or defended by such falsifications and eva- 
sions, as if it had not sufficient weapons, both defen- 
sive and offensive of its own, but that it must borrow of 
its adversary. It is a very dangerous course moreover, 
because the discovery of one cheat oftentimes renders 
the cause of those who practised it wholly suspected. 
Others, by making use of such flights as these in the Chris- 
tian religion, either for the gaining to you, or confirm- 
ing the faith of some of the simpler people, it is to be 

* Dcemonura contra se pugnantium portenta confingunt. — Hier. 
ep. 4. ad Rustic, torn. 1. 



38 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

feared, that you may give distaste to the more intelli- 
gent ; and by this means at length chance to lose also 
the affections of the more ignorant. But whatsoever 
this course of deception be, either in itself or in its con- 
sequences, it is sufficient for my purpose, that it has 
long been the practice in the Church, in matters of 
religion 5 and for proof of which I shall here produce 
some instances. 

The heretics have always been accused of using this 
artifice : but I shall not here notice what alterations 
have been made by the most ancient of them, even in the 
Scriptures themselves. If you would have a sample of 
this practice of theirs, only goto Tertullian and Epipha- 
nius, and you will there see how Marcion had mutilated 
and altered the Gospel of St. Luke, and those Epistles 
of St. Paul, which he allowed to be such. Nor have 
the ages following been a whit more conscientious in 
this particular 5 as appears by those complaints made 
by Ruffinus,* in his expositions upon the Apostle's 
Creed : and in another treatise written by him purposely 
on this subject j which is indeed contradicted by St. 
Hierome,f but only in his hypothesis, as to what con- 
cerned Origen 3 but not absolutely in his Thesis : and 
by similar complaints of St. Cyril, J and various others 
of the ancients 3 and among the moderns by those very 
persons also who have put forth the general councils 
at Rome ; who inform us, in the preface to the first vo- 
lume^ that time and the fraud of the heretics have been 
the cause that the acts of the said councils, as far as 
they exist, have not come to our hands either entire 
or pure and perfect : and they grievously bewail that 
we should be thus deprived of so great and so pre- 
cious a treasure. Now this testimony, coming from 
such, is to me worth a thousand others 5 they, in my 
opinion, being evidently interested to speak otherwise. 
For if the Church of Rome, who is the pretended mis- 
tress and trustee of the faith, has suffered any part of 
the councils to perish and be lost, which is esteemed 

* Ruffi. in Expos. Symbol, et lit. de adult, script. Origen. 
f Hier. ep. 65, torn. 2, et Apol. 2. contr. Ruffi. 
X Cyril, ep. ad Icli. Antioch. in Act. Cone. Eph. 
§ In Praufat. in torn. l. Concil. Gen. 



"WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 39 

by them as the code of the Church, what then may the 
rest have also suffered ? what may not the heretics and 
schismatics have been able to do ? And if all these evi- 
dences have been altered by their fraud, how shall we 
be able by them to come to the knowledge of the opi- 
nions and judgment of the ancients. I confess I am 
much surprised to see these men make so much account 
of the acts of the councils ; and to make such grievous 
complaints against the heretics for having suppressed 
some of them. For if these things are of such use, why 
then do they themselves keep from us the acts of the 
council of Trent ; which is the most important council, 
both for them and their party, that has been held in the 
Christian church these eight hundred years ? If it be 
a crime in the heretics to have kept from us these pre- 
cious jewels, why are not they afraid, lest the blame 
which they lay on others may chance to revert upon 
themselves ? But doubtless there is something in the 
business that renders these cases different 5 and I con- 
fess I wonder they publish it not : the simpler sort, for 
want of being otherwise informed, thinking perhaps, 
though it may be without cause, that the reason why 
the acts of this last council are kept close from them, 
is because they know that the publishing of them 
would be either prejudicial, or at least unprofitable, to 
the greatness of the Church of Rome. They also again, 
on the other side, conceive that in those other acts, 
which they say have been suppressed by the heretics, 
there were wonderful matters to be found, for the ad- 
vancing and supporting of the Church of Rome. What- 
soever the reason be, I cannot but commend the in- 
genuity of these men, who, notwithstanding their inte- 
rest which seemed to engage them to the contrary, have 
yet nevertheless confessed, that the councils which we 
have at this day are neither entire nor uncorrupted. 

Let us now examine whether or not even the orthodox 
party themselves have not also contributed something to 
this alteration of the writings of the primitive Church. 
Epiphanius reports, that in the true and most correct 
copies of St. Luke, it was written, that " Jesus Christ 
wept j" and that this passage had been quoted by St. 
Irenaeus ; but that the Catholics had blotted out this 



40 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

word, fearing that the heretics might abuse it : — 'Opdo- 
SoZoi $e acpuXorro to prjTOV, tyofirjdeyTsg, Kai jjltj vor)(TavTE£ 
avrov to teXoq, Kai to la^ypoTaTov .* 

Whether this relation be true or false, I must rely 
upon the credit of the author. But this I shall say, 
that it seems to me a clear argument, that these ancient 
Catholics would have made no great scruple of blotting out 
of the writings of the Fathers any word that they found 
to contradict their own opinions and judgment ; and that 
with the same liberty that they inform us the heretics 
used to do. For seeing that, as this Father informs us, 
they made no conscience of making such an attempt 
upon the Gospel of the Son of God himself, with how 
much greater confidence would they adventure to man- 
gle the books of men ? Certainly Ruffinus, a man so 
much applauded by St. Hierome,f before their falling 
out, and so highly esteemed by St. Augustin,| who very 
much bewails the breach between those two, (and 
whom Gennadius § hath placed, with a very high eu- 
logy of his worth, in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical 
Writers) has so filthily mangled, and so licentiously 
confounded the writings of Or%en, Eusebius, and others, 
which he has translated into Latin, that you will hardly 
find apagein his translations, where he has not either cut 
off, or added, or at least altered something. St. Hierome 
also, although his opponent, yet agrees with him in this 
point; || confessing in several places that he had indeed 
translated Origen, but in such a manner that he had 
taken liberty to cut away that which was dangerous, 
and had left only that which was useful, and had inter- 
preted only what was good, and had left out the bad ; 
that is to say, that if he found anything there that was 
not so consonant to the common judgment and opinions 
of his time, and so might possibly give offence to the 
common people, he suppressed it in his translation. He 
also affirmed that St. Hilary, and Eusebius bishop of 
Verceil, had done the like.^j And again, in his preface 

* Epiphanius in Anchor. 

•f Hier. ep. 5. ad Flor. et ep. 41. ad Ruffin. 

j Aug. ep. ad Hier. quae est inter ep. Hier. 93, et iterum ep. 97. 

§ Gennald. in Catal. inter op. Hier. 

|| Hier. ep. 62. ad Theoph. Alex, et lib. 2. Apol. contra Ruffin. 

^ Hier.ep. 75. Id. praefat. in lib. Euseb. de loc. Hebr. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 4] 

toEusebius, " De locis Hebraicis," he confesses that he 
left out that which he conceiv ed was not worth remem- 
bering ; and that he had altered the greatest part of it. 
To make it evident that this has been his constant prac- 
tice, we need but compare his Latin chronology with the 
Greek fragments which remain of Eusebius -, where you 
may plainly see what license these ancients allowed 
themselves in the writings of others. 

What doubt can there be but that those men 
who came after them, following the authority of so 
great an example, carefully took out of their copies, or 
else left out of their translations, the greatest part of 
whatever they found to be dissonant to the opinions 
and customs which were received in the Church in the 
times they lived in ? and likewise, that for imparting the 
greater authority to them, some have had the bold- 
ness to add, in some places, what they conceived to be 
wanting? Whence else could it proceed, that we 
should have so many unreasonable breakings off in 
many places, and so many impertinent additions in 
others, as there are frequently to be met with in 
the ancient authors ? Whence otherwise should we 
have those many coarse patches that are ready to grate 
the skin off our fingers, in the midst of their soft satin 
and velvet ? and that inequality which we observe in 
one and the same author in a quarter of an hour's 
reading ? 

It would be a tedious matter to bring in here all the 
examples of this kind that might be done ; there being 
scarcely any of the moderns that have taken any pains 
in writing upon the Fathers, but have noticed and com- 
plained of this abuse. Hence it is, that we oftentimes 
meet with such notices as this, in the margins of the 
Fathers : " Hie videtur aliquis assuisse nugas suas," and 
the like : * and that also which is observed by Vives 
upon the 21st Book of St. Augustin De Civitate Dei ; 
namely, that ten or twelve lines, which we find at this 
day in the 24th chapter of that Book, containing a 
positive assertion of purgatory, were not to be found 
in the ancient manuscripts of Bruges, and of Co- 

* To. 4. op. Ambr. p. 211. lib. 2. de Abra. in marg. annot. 



42 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

logne $* no, nor yet in that of Paris, as is noted by those 
that printed St. Augustin, anno 1531. One Holsteinius 
also, a Dutchman, testifieth that he had met with divers 
pieces among the manuscripts of the King s Library, of 
Chrysostom, Proclus, and others, that had in like 
manner been scratched in divers places by the like 
hands, by some interpolators of the later and worst 
ages.f 

But I may not here forget to observe, that this altera- 
tion has also taken place, even in the most sacred 
and public pieces ; as in the liturgies of the Church, 
and the like : and I shall give you this observation, 
in order that it may carry with it the greater grace- 
fulness and weight, in the expressions of Andreas Masius, 
a man of singular and profound learning, yet of such 
candour and integrity as renders him more admired 
than his knowledge ; and which, together with his other 
excellences, endears him to all moderate men of both 
professions. This learned person, observing that the 
Liturgy of St. Basil was not so long in the Syriac as in 
the Greek, assigns this reason — " For," saith he, "men, 
have always been of such a humour and disposition in 
matters of religion, that you shall scarcely find any that 
have been able to content themselves with the ceremo- 
nies prescribed unto them by their Fathers, however 
holy they have been in themselves : so that we may ob- 
serve that in course of time, according as the prelates 
have thought fittest to unite the affections of the people 
to piety and devotion, many other things have been 
either added or altered, and (which is much worse,) 
many superstitious things have been also introduced; 
in which particular I conceive the Christians of Syria 
have been more moderate and less extravagant than the 
Greeks and Latins, from not having the opportunity of 

* In antiquis libris Brug. et Colon, non leguntur isti decern aut 

duodecim qui sequuntur versus Lud. Fives in lib. 21. de Civ. 

Dei, c. 24. 

+ Neque solius Anathanasii ea fortuna, ut ineptissimorum in- 
terpolatorum manus subiret, cum Chrysostomi, Procli, aliorumque 
homilias similibus sequiorum saeculorum ineptiis fcedatas, in iisdem 
regiis codicibus invenerim. — Holstein. op. lim. prcef. torn. op. 
Atkan. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 43 

enjoying that quiet and abundance of life which the 
others had." * Thus the learned Masius Cassan- 
der also, f who searched the writings of the ancients 
with good intentions, acknowledges, and proves out of 
other authors, that the ancient liturgies have by little 
and little been enlarged by the several additions of the 
moderns. 

Thus proportionably as the world itself has changed, 
so would it have whatever there remained of antiquity 
to undergo its alterations also : imagining that it was but 
reasonable that these books should in some measure 
accommodate their language to the times j as the au- 
thors of them in all probability would have done them- 
selves, (believing and speaking with the times), had they 
been now living. Now to render them the more accept- 
able, they have used those arts upon them, that some old 
men are wont to practise ; they have new coloured their 
beard and mustachoes, cutting off the rude and scattered 
hairs : have smoothed their skin, and given it a fresh 
complexion, and taught them to speak with a new voice, 
having changed also the colour of their habit : insomuch 
that it is much to be feared, that we oftentimes do but 
lose our labour, when we search, in these disguised faces 
and mouths, for the complexion and language of true 
antiquity. Thus have they taught Eusebius to tell us 
in his Chronicon, that the fast of Lent was instituted 
by Telesphorus, and the observation of the Lord's 
day by Pius, both bishops of Rome ; which is a thing 
Eusebius never so much as dreamt of, as may appear out 
of some manuscripts of his, where you find him wholly 
silent as to these points, with which the moderns are 
much pleased. + 

But to return, and take up the thread of time, we may 
observe that this licence grew stronger daily as the 
times grew worse ; because that the greater the distance 
of time was from the author's own age, the more diffi- 
cult the discovery of these forgeries must necessarily 

* Andr. Masius, Praef. in Litur. Syr. 

f Cass and. in Liturg. cap. 2. 

j Euseb. in Chro. edit. num. 2148. & 2158. Vide Scalig. in loc. 
p. 193. a. & 201. a. See also Card. Perron's Reply to K. James, 
Observ. 2. c. 8. 



44 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

be : the example also of some of the most eminent 
persons among the ancients, who had sometimes made 
use of these flights, adding on the other side boldness 
to every one, and courage to venture upon what they had 
done before them. For indeed, is it not a strange thing, 
that the legates of Pope Leo, in the year 451, in the 
midst of the council of Chalcedon, where were assem- 
bled six hundred bishops, the very flower and choice of 
the whole clergy, should have the confidence to quote 
the 6th canon of the council of Nice in these very 
words, — " That the Church of Rome has always had 
the primacy :" * words which are no more found in any 
Greek copies of the councils, than are those other pre- 
tended canons of Pope Zozimus : neither do they ap- 
pear in any Greek or Latin copies, nor so much as in 
the edition of Dionysius Exiguus, who lived about 
fifty years after this council. When I consider that the 
legates of so holy a Pope would at that time have fastened 
such a wen upon the body of so venerable a canon, I am 
almost ready to think that we scarcely have any thing of 
antiquity left us that is entire and uncorrupt, except it 
be in matters of indifference, or which could not have 
been corrupted without much noise ; and to take this 
proceeding of theirs, which is come to our knowledge, 
as an advertisement purposely given us by Divine Pro- 
vidence, to let us see with how much consideration and 
advisedness we ought to receive for the council of 
Nice, and of Constantinople, and for Cyprian's and 
Hierome's writings, that which goes at this day for 
such. 

About seventy- four years after the council of Chalcedon, 
Dionysius Exiguus, whom we before mentioned, made 
his collection at Rome, which is since printed at Paris, 
cum privilegio regis, out of very ancient manuscripts. 
Whosoever will but look diligently into this collection, 
will find various alterations in it, one of which I shall 
instance merely to shew how old this artifice has been 
among Christians. 

The last canon of the council of Laodicea, which is 
the hundred and sixty-third of the Greek code of the 

* Concil. Chalced. Act. 16. torn. 2. Concil. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 45 

Church universal, forbidding to read in Churches any- 
other books than those which are canonical, gives us 
a long catalogue of them. Dionysius Exiguus, although 
he has indeed inserted in his collection (Num. 162) the 
beginning of the said canon, which forbiddeth to read 
any other books in the churches besides the sacred 
volumes of the Old and New Testament, yet hath 
wholly omitted the catalogue, or list of the said books : 
fearing, as I conceive, lest the tail of this catalogue 
might scandalize the Church of Rome, where many 
years before Pope Innocent had, by an express decree 
to that purpose, put into the canon of the Old Testa- 
ment* the Maccabees, the Wisdom of Solomon, Eccle- 
siasticus, Tobit, Judith, &c; of which books the Fathers 
of the council of Laodicea make no mention at all, 
naming but twenty-three books of the Old Testament ; 
and in the catalogue of the new, utterly omitting the 
Apocalypse. 

If any man can shew me a better reason for this 
suppression, let him speak. For my part I conceive this 
the most probable that can be given. However, we 
are not bound to divine what the motive should be, 
that made Dionysius cut off that part of the canon. 
For, whatsoever the reason was, it serves the purpose 
well enough to make it appear that at that time they 
felt no compunction of conscience in curtailing, if need 
were, the very text of the canons themselves. 80 that if 
we had not had the good fortune to have had this canon 
entire and perfect, in divers other monuments of anti- 
quity, (as in the collections of the Greeks, and also in 
the councils of the French Church,) we should at this 
day have been wholly ignorant w T hat the judgment of 
the Fathers of Laodicea was respecting the canon of 
the Holy Scriptures, which is one of the principal con- 
troversies of these times. 

It is true, I confess, that the Latins have their revenge 
upon the Greeks, reproaching them in like manner, 
that in their translation of the code of the canons of the 
African Church, they have left the books of theMaccabees 
quite out of the roll of the books of Scriptures, which 

* Innocent, l. ep 3. a Exup. Tholos. c. 7. 



46 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

is set down in the twenty-fourth canon of their collec- 
tion, expressly against the faith of all the Latin copies 
in this collection, both printed and manuscript, as 
Cardinal Perron affirmeth.* Yet there are some others f 
who assure us that no book of Maccabees appears at 
all in this canon, in the collection of Cresconius, a bi- 
shop of Africa, not yet printed. 

The Greek code represents unto us seven canons of the 
1st council of Constantinople ; which are in like manner 
found both in Balsamon and in Zonaras, and also in 
the Greek and Latin edition of the general councils, 
printed at Rome. The three last of these do not ap- 
pear at all in the Latin code of Dionysius ; though 
they are very important ones as to the business they 
relate to, which is, the order in proceeding, in passing 
judgment upon bishops accused, and in receiving such 
persons, who, forsaking their communion with heretics, 
desire to be admitted into the Church. It is very diffi- 
cult to say, what should move the collector to alter this 
council thus. But this I am very well assured of, that 
in the 6'th canon, which is one of those he has omitted, 
and which treats of judging of bishops accused, there 
is not the least mention made of appealing to Rome, nor 
of any reserved cases, wherein it is not permitted to any, 
save only to the Pope himself, to judge a bishop ; the 
power of hearing and determining all such matters being 
here wholly and absolutely referred to provincial dio- 
cesan synods. Now whether the Greeks made this ad- 
dition to the council of Constantinople, (which yet is 
not very probable), or whether Dionysius or the Church 
of Rome curtailed this council, it will still appear evi- 
dent that this boldness in rescinding or making addi- 
tions to ecclesiastical writings, is not at all in use in 
these days. After the canons of Constantinople, there 
follow, in the Greek code, eight canons of the general 
council of Ephesus, set down also both by Balsamon 
and Zonaras,|and printed with the acts of the said council 
of Ephesus, in the first volume of the Roman edition. 
But Dionysius Exiguus has discarded them all, not 

* Perron Kepi. 1. 1. c. 1. 

f Christ. Justel. in Not. ad Can. 24. Cod. Gr. Eccles. Afric. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 47 

giving us any one of them : and you will hardly be able 
to give a probable guess what his reason should be, un- 
less perhaps it were because the business of the 8th 
canon displeased him 3 which is, that the bishops of 
Cyprus had their ordinations within themselves, without 
admitting the patriarch of Antioch to have anything to 
do with it ; and that the same course ought to be ob- 
served in all other provinces and dioceses ; so that no 
bishop should have power to intrude into a province 
which had not from the beginning been under his and 
his predecessor's jurisdiction : " For fear, that under 
the pretence of the administration of sacred offices, the 
pride of a secular power should thrust itself into the 
Church ; and by this means we should lose," say these 
good Fathers, tl by little and little, before we were 
aware, the liberty that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Re- 
deemer of all mankind, hath purchased for us with his 
own blood :" — 'Iva firj tojv ira-Epu)v ol kcivoveq 7ra0a/3au'a>y- 
-cu, /jlt)£e ev lepovpytaQ Trpoc^juart, e^ovcriag KOff/jiirjQ rvcpoq 
TraprjtT^viiraL' ijlyjSe \adu)juiev rr\v tkevdeptav Kara ixiKpov airo- 
\eaavTec, yv i]jjliv E^iopijcaro tio Iclio alfdart 6 Kvptoe r/fiiov 

'lt](70VQ XpKJTOQ.* 

I know not, whether this constitution, and these 
words, have put the Latins into any fright or not ; or 
whether any other reason hath induced them not to 
receive the canons of the council of Ephesus into their 
code. But this is certain, that they do not appear any 
where among them 5 and it is now at the least seven 
hundred and fifty years and upward, that Anastasius 
Bibliothecarius,f the Pope's library-keeper, testified, 
that these canons were not anywhere to be found in the 
most ancient Latin copies 5 accusing moreover the 
Greeks of having forged them. Let them settle this 
dispute among themselves. Whether these canons were 
forged by the Greeks ; or whether they have been blot- 
ted out of this council, and smothered by the Latins ; 
it is still a clear case, that the cheat is very near eight 
hundred years standing. But in the next example that 
follows, the business is evidently clear. For whereas 

* Concil. Eph. Can. 8. qui in 7. Gr. est 178. Cod. Can. Eccl. 
f Anastas. Biblioth. Prsef. in Synod. 8. torn. 3. Concil. Gen. 



48 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

the Greek code, Num. 206, sets before us, in the 24th 
canon of the general council of Chalcedon, a decree of 
those Fathers, by which, conformably to the first coun- 
cil of Constantinople, they ordained, that (e the city of 
Constantinople was the seat of the senate, and of the 
empire, and enjoyed the same privileges with the city 
of Rome ; that therefore it should in like manner be 
advanced to the same height and greatness in ecclesias- 
tical affairs, being the second church in order, after 
Rome : and that the bishop of it should have the or- 
daining of Metropolitans in the three dioceses of Pontus, 
Asia, and Thrace :"— -Trjv fiaaiXaia /cat cvy/cXryrw rtp/fletcaj/ 
iro\tv, /cat rwv low cnrokavovGav TrpEafieiuv ry wpEcrfivTEpa 
jjaatXtCt VwjJLrj, /cat iv tolq EKK\r)GtaaTiKoiQ <hg ekelvtjv jxe- 
yakvi'Evdai 7rpay fiacre, devrepav jjlet ekelvtiv VTzapypvvav* 

This canon is found both in Balsamon and Zonaras ; 
and has also the testimony of the greatest part of the 
ecclesiastical historians, both Greek and Latin, that it 
is a legitimate canon of the council of Chalcedon ; in 
the acts of which council, at this day also extant, it is 
set down at large : yet, notwithstanding, in the collection 
of Dionysius Exiguus this canon appears not at all, no 
more than if there had never been any such thing thought 
of at Chalcedon. We know very well, that Pope Leo 
and some others of his successors rejected it -, but he 
that promised us, that he would make an orderly diges- 
tion of the canons of the councils, and translate them 
out of the Greek ; why or how did he, or ought he, to 
omit this so remarkable a canon. If all other evidences 
had been lost, how should we have been able so much as 
to have guessed that any such thing was ever treated of 
at Chalcedon ? Where, or by what means, could we have 
learnt what the opinion was of the 630 Fathers, who met 
here together respecting this point, which is the most 
important one of all those that are at this day contro- 
verted among us ? It is now eleven hundred years and 
upward, since this omission was first on foot. And who 
will pass his word to us, that among so many other 
writings, whether of councils or particular men's works, 
whether Greek or Latin, similar liberty hath not been 

* Cone. Chalc. Can. 28. Cod. Grsec. Eccl. Univ. 206. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 49 

at any time used ? Rather by these forgeries which 
have come to our knowledge, who can doubt but that 
there have been many other of the same kind, which we 
are ignorant of? You have gone along innocently per- 
haps, reading these books of the ancients, and believing 
you there find the pure sense of antiquity ; and yet you 
see here, that from the beginning of the sixth century 
they have made no scruple of cutting off, from the most 
sacred books they had, whatsoever was not agreeable to 
the taste of the times. And therefore, though we had 
no more against them than this, it were, in my judgment, 
a sufficient reason to induce us to go on here very wa- 
rily, and, as they say, with a tight rein, through this 
whole business. 

In the next place, there is a very observable corruption 
in the epistle of Adrian I. to the Emperor Constantine, 
in the time of the second council of Nice.* For in the 
Latin collection of Anastasius, made about seven hun- 
dred and fifty years since, Adrian is there made to speak 
very highly and magnificently of the supremacy of his 
see ; and he rebukes the Greeks very shrewdly, for 
having conferred upon Tarasius, the patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, the title of Universal Bishop : and all this 
while there is not so much as one word of this to be 
found, either in the Greek edition of the said 7th coun- 
cil, nor yet in the common Latin ones. The Romanists 
accuse the Greeks of having suppressed these two 
clauses ; and the Greeks again accuse the Romanists 
of having foisted them in : neither is it easy to determine 
on which side the guilt lies. However, it is sufficient 
for me, that wheresoever the fault lies, it evidently ap- 
peareth hence, that this curtailing and adding to authors, 
according to the interest of the present times, has now 
a very long time been in practice amongst Christians. 
It appears also very evidently, in the next piece following 
in the same council, namely, the epistle of Adrian to 
Tarasius, that it is quite another thing in the Greek from 
what it is in Anastasius's Latin translation ; and that 
in points too of as high importance as those others be- 
fore mentioned. So in the 5th act likewise, where both 

* Concil. 7, Act. 2, torn. 3, Concil. 
D 



50 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

in the Greek text, and also in the old Latin translation, 
Tarasius is called Universal Bishop,* this title appears 
not at all in Anastasius's translation. 

In the same act the Fathers accuse the Iconoclastsf 
of having cut many leaves out of a certain book in 
the library at Constantinople ; and that at a certain city 
called Phocia, they had burned to the number of thirty 
volumes ; that besides this, they had erased the anno- 
tations out of a certain book ; and all this out of the 
malice they bore against images, of which these books 
spoke well and favourably. 

Yet I do not see how we can excuse the Romanists 
from being guilty of corrupting Anastasius in those pas- 
sages above noted ; nor yet of the injury they do Euse- 
bius, in the exposition which they give of certain words 
of his, only to render him odious ; objecting against 
him, because he says, that " the carnal form of Jesus 
Christ was changed into the nature of the Deity :" 
— 'On iuerefD\r}Or] fj ivvapKog avrov fiop(f)r] elg rrjv tyjq Oeto- 
tt)toq tyvaiv. Whereas all that he says is, "that it 
was changed by the Deity dwelling in it :" fj haapKoq 

CLVTOV JUO007/ 7T00C. TYjQ SVOLKQVCTrjQ CCVTrj OeiOTTJTOQ /z£ra/3\?7- 

Hence it appears how much credit we are to give to 
these men, when they instance here and there divers 
strange and unheard of pieces -, and on the contrary 
scornfully reject whatever their adversaries bring : as, 
for example, that remarkable passage, quoted by them 
out of Epiphanius ; which passage they refused as sup- 
posititious : " Because, (said they) if Epiphanius had 
been of the same judgment with the Iconoclasts, he 
would then in his Panarium have reckoned the reverenc- 
ing of images among the other heresies :" El rrjv riov 
eiSioXojv 7roirjcriv dWorpiav rov Xpivrov eyivwcTKev, eig rov 
apidfxov Tit)v alpecrecov ravrr]v Karera^ev av.§ 

May not a man, by the same reason, as well conclude 
that Epiphanius was a favourer of the Iconoclasts ? for 
otherwise he would have included their doctrine among 
the rest of the heresies enumerated by him. I shall 

* Concil. 7, Act. 5, torn. 3, Cone. f lb. p. 557. 

% Concil. 7, Act. 5. advers. Synod. Iconocl. Sect. 5. 
§ lb. p. 616. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 51 

not here say anything of their refusing so boldly and 
confidently those passages quoted from Theodotus 
Ancyranus, and others. Since that time you will find 
nothing more common in the books both of the Greeks 
and the Latins, than the like reproaches, that they mu- 
tually cast upon each other, of having corrupted the 
writings and evidences wherein their cause was the most 
concerned. As, for example, at the council of Florence,* 
Mark, bishop of Ephesus, disputing concerning the pro- 
cession of the Holy Ghost, had nothing to answer to 
two passages that were alleged against him, (the one 
out of that piece of Epiphanius which is intituled An- 
coratus, the other out of St. Basil's writings against Eu- 
nomius,) but that " that piece of Epiphanius had been 
long since corrupted," (tovto to fiifikiov kari cutydapfjEvov 
7rpo 7to\X(jjv yoovuv) : and so likewise of that other pas- 
sage out of St. Basil, that " some one or other who fa- 
voured the opinion of the Latins, had accommodated 
it to their views :" moreover protesting,! that in 
all Constantinople there were but four copies of the 
said book that had that passage quoted by the Latins ; 
but that there were in the said city above a thousand 
other copies wherein those words were not to be found at 
all. 

The Latins had nothing to retort upon them more 
readily than that it had been the ordinary practice, not 
of the West but of the East, to corrupt books; and for 
proof thereof, they cite a passage out of St. Cyril, which 
we have heretofore noticed : where, notwithstanding he 
says not anything but of the heretics, (that is, the Nes- 
torians,) who were said to have falsified the epistle of 
Athanasius to Epictetus 5 but not a word there of all 
the Eastern men, much less of the whole Greek Church. 
The Greeks then retorted upon the Latins the story 
of Pope Zozimus, mentioned in the preceding chapter. 
Thus did they unceremoniously assail each other, hav- 
ing, as may be easily perceived, much more appearance 
Qf reason and of truth in their accusation of their adver- 
saries, than in excusing or defending themselves. 

I shall here also give you another similar answ T er, 
made by one Gregorius, a Greek monk, a strong main- 

* Concil. Florenc. Act. 18, torn. 4 Cone. f lb. Act. 20. 

D ( Z 



52 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

tainer of the union made at Florence, to a passage cited 
by Mark bishop of Ephesus, out of a certain book of 
John Damascene ; affirming that " the Father only is 
the cause," to wit, in the Trinity,* c ' these words (saith 
this monk) are not found in any of the ancient copies," 
which is an evident argument, that it had been afterwards 
foisted in by the Greeks, to bring over this doctor to 
their opinion. Petavius has in like manner lately rid 
himself of an objection, taken out of the 68th canon of 
the apostles' against the fasting on Saturdays, which is 
observed in the Romish Church, pretending that the 
Greeks have falsified this canon. f 

But whosoever desires to see how full of uncertainty 
the writings of this later antiquity are, let him but read 
the 8th council, which is pretended by the Western 
church to be a general council, and but compare the 
Latin and the Greek copies together ; — taking especial 
notice also of the preface of Anastasius Bibliothecarius ; 
who (after he has very sharply reproved the ambition 
of the Greeks, and accused the canons which they pro- 
duce of the third general council as forged and suppo- 
sititious), to make short work with them says, in 
plain terms, that the Greeks have corrupted all the coun- 
cils except the first. 

What then have we now left us to build upon, seeing 
that this corruption has prevailed even as far as on the 
councils, which are the very heart of the ancient monu- 
ments of the Church ? Neither yet has the Nicene 
creed, which has been approved and made sacred in so 
many general councils, been able to escape these altera- 
tions. Not to say anything of these expressions, 
which are of little importance, de calls, from heaven ; 
secundum Scripturas, according to the Scriptures ; Deum 
de Deo, God of God ; which cardinal Julian affirmed 
at the council of Florence^ were to be found in some 
creeds, and in some others were not : it is now the space 
of some ages past, since the Eastern church accused the 
Western of having added FUioque (and the Son) in the 
article on the procession of the Holy Ghost : the Wes- 

* Apol. Gregor. Mon. Frotosyn. contr. Ep. Marc. Eph. torn. 4. 
Council. 

f Petavius Not. in Epiphan. { Council. Flor. Sess. 12. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 53 

tern men as senselessly charging upon them again, that 
they have cut it off:* which is an alteration, though 
but trivial in appearance, of vast importance to both 
sides, for the decision of that great controversy which 
has hitherto caused a separation betwixt them ; namely, 
" Whether or not the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son 
as well as from the Father :" which is an evident argu- 
ment, that either the one or the other of them has, out 
of a desire to do service to their own side, laid false 
hands upon this sacred piece. 

Now whatever has been attempted in this kind by 
the ancients, may well pass for innocence, if compared 
with what these later times have dared to do : their 
passion being of late years so much heated, that, lay- 
ing all reason and honesty aside, they have most mise- 
rably and shamelessly corrupted all kinds of books and 
of authors. Of those men that go so desperately to 
work, we cannot certainly speak of their baseness as it 
deserves : and in my judgment, Laurentius Bochellus, 
in his preface to the Decreta Ecclesice Gallicance, had all 
the reason in the world to detest these men, as " people 
of a most wretched and malicious spirit, who have most 
miserably curtailed and mangled so infinite a number 
of authors, both sacred and profane, ancient and mo- 
dern ; their ordinary custom being to spare no person, 
no not kings ; nor even St. Lewis himself 5 out of whose 
Pragmatica Sanctio (as they call it) they have blotted 
out certain articles (principally those which concerned 
the State of France,) from that library of the Fathers the 
Constituiiones Regice, and others also from the Synodical 
Decrees of certain Bishops, lately printed at Paris. Wo, 
wo, (to speak with the prophet) to these mischievous 
knaves who do not only lay such treacherous snares for 
the venerable chastity and integrity of the Muses, but do 
also most impudently and wickedly deflower, under a 
false and counterfeit pretence of religion, even the Muses 
themselves, accounting this juggling to be but a kind of 
pious fraud."f 

* Concil. Flor. Ses. 4 et 5, et Concil. 7, Act. 7, quo loco vi- 
denda annot. marg. 

f Taceo innumeros auctores sacros, profanos, veteres, recentiores, 
ab istis tarn improbi quam infoelicis ingenii hominibus miserabiliter 
decurtatos, vel ipsis regibus parcere non assuetis, nedum S. Ludo- 



54 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

We do not here write against these men ; it is suffi- 
cient for us to give a hint only of that which is as clear 
as the sun -, namely, that they have altered and cor- 
rupted, by their additions in some places, and curtail- 
ing in others, very many of the evidences of the ancient 
belief. These are they, who in this part of the 12th 
epistle of St. Cyprian, written to the people of Carthage, 
— -" I desire that they would but patiently hear our coun- 
cil, &c. that our fellow bishops being assembled together 
with us, we may together examine the letters and desires 
of the blessed martyrs, according to the doctrine of our 
Lord, and in the presence of the confessors, et secundum 
vestram quoque sententiam, (and according as you also 
shall think convenient) "f — have maliciously left out 
these w r ords, et secundum vestram quoque sententiam : by 
which we may plainly understand, that these men would 
not by any means have us know, that the faithful people 
had ever anything to do with, or had any vote in, the 
affairs of the Church. These are the same, who, in his 
fortieth epistle, have changed Petram into Petrum ; X (a 
Rock into St. Peter) ; and who, following the steps of the 
ancient corrupters, have foisted into his tract De Uni- 
tate Ecclesice, wherever they thought fit, whole periods and 
sentences, against the faith of the best and most uncor- 
rupted manuscripts : as, for example in this place ; 

vico, cujus Pragmatics (ut vocant) Sanctionis articulos nonnullos, 
niaxime ad rei Gallicse statum pertinentes, abs bibliotheca ilia SS. 
PP. Constitutionibus Begiis ; et statutis Episcoporum quorundam 
Synodalibus reginse urbium Lutetian nuper impressis, expunxerunt. 
Vae, iterum vse, ut cum Vidente exclamem, nebulonibus, qui tales 
Musarum castitati et integritati venerandse non solum insidias stru- 
unt, sed et Musas ipsas impudenter, et nequiter subdolo religionis 
zelo, nullius frontis homines devirginant, fucumque istum pietatis 
nomen ementitum, inter pias fraudes numerant. — Laur. Bochel. Prce- 
fat. in deer el. Eccles. Gal. 

f Audiant quaeso patienter consilium nostrum ; expectent re- 
gressionem nostram, ut cum ad vos per Dei misericordiam venerimus, 
convocati coepiscopi plures secundum Domini doctrinam, et confes- 
sorum prsesentiam, beatorum Martyrum literas et desideria exami- 
nare possimus. (Cypr. Ep. 12. Extr.) — Cypr. Pamel. et Gryph. 
Lugd. an. 1537,1. 3, ep. 16, p. 148; alise editiones, ut Manutii, 
item Morellii, Par. an. 1568, p. 158, legunt " secundum vestram 
quoque sententiam." 

J Cathedra una super Petrum Domini voce fundata. (Cypr. Pamel. 
Epist. 40, p. 7.) — Gryph. an. 1537, p. 52, Morel, an. 1564, p. 124, 
habebant svper Petram. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 55 

" He built his Church on Him alone, (St. Peter), and 
commanded him to feed his sheep ;* and in this ; " He 
established one sole chair :"f and this other; "The 
primacy was given to Peter, to shew that there was but 
one church, and one chair of Christ : X and this ; "Who 
left the chair to Peter, on which he had built his church. § 
These being additions which every one may see the ob- 
ject of. 

These are the men who cannot conceal the regret they 
have for not having suppressed an epistle of Firmilia- 
nus, archbishop of Csesarea in Cappadocia, who was one 
of the most eminent persons of his time ; which epistle 
Manutius had indeed omitted in his Roman edition of 
St. Cyprian ;\\ but was afterwards inserted by Morellius 
in his, amongst the epistles of St. Cyprian, to whom it 
was written ; and all because it informs us how the other 
bishops in ancient times had dealt with the Pope. Thus 
we may hence observe of what temper these men have al- 
ways been, and may guess how many similar pieces have 
been killed in the nest. Out of the like store-house it 
is, that poor St. Ambrose is sent abroad, but so ill ac- 
coutred, and in so pitiful a plight, that Nicolas Faber 
has very much bewailed the corruption of him.^f For 
those gentlemen who have published him being over inge- 
nious (as he saith) in another man's works, have changed, 
mangled, and transposed divers things : and especial- 
ly have they separated the books of the " Interpellation of 

* Super ilium unum sedificat Ecclesiam suam, et illi pascendas 
mandat oves suas. (Cypr. Pamel. p. 254.)— -Quae verba desiderantur 
in edit. Gryph. anno 1537, et Morel, anno 1564. 

t Unam cathedram constituit. (Cypr. Pamel. ibid.) — Quae ver- 
ba desiderabantur in editione Gryphii, anno 1537, et Morel, anno 
1564. 

\ Primatus Petro datur, ut una Ecclesia Christi, et cathedra 
una monstretur ; et pastores sunt omnes ; sed unus grex ostenditur, 
qui ab Apostolis omnibus unanimi consensione pascatur. (Cypr. Pa~ 
mel. ibid.) — Quae verba omnia, exceptis illis (ut una Ecclesia mon- 
stretur) non habebantur in edit. Gryph. neque Morel, uti sup. 

§ Qui cathedram Petri super quam fundata est Ecclesia. (Cypr, 
Pamel. p. 254.) — Absunt a Gryph. et Morel, edit. 

|l Atque adeo fortassis consultius foret, nunquam editam fuisse 
hanc epistolam ; it a ut putent, consulto illam omisisse Manutium. 
— Pamel. in arg. ep. 75. Cypr. 

^f Nic. Faber, in ep. ad Front. Ducaeum in Opusc. p. 216. 



CORRUPTIONS IN THE 



Job and of David, which were put together in all other 
editions; and to do this they have, by no very com 
niendable example, foisted in and altered divers LrT : 
and they have likewise done as much in the "First 
Apology of David ;" and more yet in the second ; where 
hey have erased out of the eighth chapter five or six 

SSJ» iT f °" nd in , a11 the ancient editions of this 
father.* Ihey have also attributed to this author 
certain tracts which are not his; as that "Of the for- 
bidden Tree;" and that other, upon the last copter of 
the Proverbs We may, by the way, also take notice, 

St Am? ^ ^ eedl * lon wh T | ch they followed, who printed 
St. Ambroses works at Paris, anno 1603. They were 

book ^of,W- eSe '} a \ s « villainously curtailed the 
book Of the Lives of the Popes," written bv Anasta 

oft °th r e ath , e h r hY > B ^TV lJiQ * ° Ut > - the TeryTnt; 
of it, the author s epistle dedicatory, written to St Hie- 

TeZ'e AT I" 86 {t dId n0t S ° We " Sult with the present 
temper of Rome ; omitting, in like manner, in the life 

, thn'nH "' ii PaSSage Which T Sha11 here q«°te as it 
« found in all manuscripts: "He consecrated St. Cle- 
ment Bishop, and committed to his charge the ordering 
o his seat, or of the whole Church, saving g As the power 
of binding and loosing, was delivered to me by my 
Lord Jesus Christ , in like manner do I commit to thy 
harge the appointing of such persons as may determine 
such ecclesiastical causes as may arise , that thou thy- 
self mayest not be taken up with worldly cares but 
mayest apply thy whole studies only to grayer and 

ET£2V > e Pe ° Ple After he had thusdispo ed of 
his seat, he was crowned with martvrdom."+ This is 
the testament that St. Peter made ; but it has been sup- 
pressed and kept from us, because in it he has cliarZ 

both SU to Ce Z r \ Wlth SUCh , dUtieS 3S are 1 uite c » n tr!ry 
both to their humour and practice. In another place, 
th e 'r same book, instead of Papa Urbis (that is to 
say , the Pope or Bishop of the city/' namelv of Rome! 
as all manusenpfs have it) these worthy gentlemen will 
* Nich. Faber, ibid. p. 259. 

t Hie B. Clementem Episcopum consecravit, eique catliedram 
vel ecclesmm omnem dbponendam commisit, dicens : slcut ndhi Tu 
bernand, trad.ta est a Domino meo Jesu Christo potest ligafdi 7 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 57 

needs have us read Papa Orbis, that is, " the Bishop of 
the whole world :"* inasmuch as this is now the style 
of the court, and this has long since become the title of 
the bishop of Rome. 

These are the men, who in Fulbertus, bishop of Char- 
tres,f (where he cites that remarkable passage of S. Au- 
gustin, " This then is a figure commanding us to commu- 
nicate of the passion of the Lord/') have inserted these 
words, " Figuraergo est, dicet haereticus :" (It is a figure 
then, will a heretic say) : cunningly making us believe 
this to be the saying of a heretic, which was indeed the 
true sense and meaning of St. Augustin himself, and so 
cited by Fulbertus. These are the very men also, who in 
St. Gregory have changed exercitus sacerdotum into exitus 
sacerdotum ,• reading, in the 38th epistle of his fourth 
book, thus : " All things, &c. which have been foretold, 
are accomplished. The king of pride (he speaks of 
Antichrist) is at hand ; and, which is horrible to be 
spoken, the failing (or end) of priests is prepared : 
whereas the manuscripts (and it is so cited by Bellar- 
mine too) read, An army of priests is prepared for 
him. "} 

These are they who have made Aimonius to say, 
that the Fathers of the pretended eighth general 
council " had ordained the adoration of images, accord- 
ing as had been before determined by the orthodox doc- 
tors :" whereas he wrote quite contrary, u that they had 
ordained otherwise than had been formerly determined 
by the orthod. doct y as appears plainly, not only by 

solvendique ; ita et ego tibi committo, ut ordines dispositores diver- 
sarum causarum, per quos actus ecclesiasticus profligetur ; ettumini- 
me in cutis seculi deditus reperiaris, sed solummodo ad orationem, et 
praedicationem populi vacare stude. Post hanc dispositionem Marty- 
rio coronatur. — Habentur hsec ex Euchar. Salm. ad Sirmond. cap. 5. 
Editio Par. anno 1621, p. 664. 

* Dei ordinante providentia Papa Orbis consecratus est. (Anastas. 
inStephano 5, p. 215.) — MSS. habent, Papa Urbis : ex Salm. in Eu- 
char. ad Sirmond. pag. 464. 

t Vid. Fulbert. Carnot. Edit, a Villersio, anno 1608, Par. p. 168. 

$ Omnia, &c. quae praedicta sunt, fiunt. Rex superbiae prope est ; et 
quod dici nefas est, Sacerdotum ei praeparatur exitus. (Gregor. M, ep. 
1. 4. ep. 38.) — MSS. habent, ■ Sacerdotum ei praeparatur exercitus :' ex 
Tho. James, in Vindic. Gregor. loc. 666 ; quo modo citatur etiam a 
Bellarmino hie locus, lib. 3. de Rom. Pont. c. 13. Sect. Addit. et 
extr. 0. Sect, pari ratione. 

d5 



5S CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

the manuscripts, but also by the most ancient editions 
of this author ; and even by Card. Baronius, quoting 
this passage also, in the tenth tome of his Annals, anno 
Domini 869.* 

These are they who have entirely erased this follow- 
ing passage out of (Ecumenius : " For they who defend- 
ed and favoured the law, introduced also the worshipping 
of angels ; and that, because the law had been given by 
them. And this custom continued long in Phrygia, in- 
somuch that the council of Laodiceamade a decree, for- 
bidding to make any addresses to angels, or to pray to 
them : whence also it is that we find many temples among 
them erected to Michael the Archangel :"— 01 yap ra> vofiu 
gvv rjyopovvTEQ, Kat tovq ayyeXovg (refieiv elarjyovvro, on Si 
dvTiov Kai 6 vofjiog iSoOrj, 'Ejjlslve c)£ tovto Kara <&pvytav to 
edog, ljq Kai rr\v kv AaoSuceia avvoiov vojjlo) KwXvaai to wpov- 
tevciL dyyeXoig, Kai Trpocrev^aOar <x0' ov Kai vaoi 7rap* civtoiq 
tov dp-^KTTpaTrjyov M.i\arjX ttoXXoi. 

This passage David Hceschelius, in his notes upon the 
books of Origen against Celsus, p. 483, witnesses that 
he himself had seen and read in his manuscripts of (Ecu- 
menius ; and yet there is no such thing to be found in 
any of the printed copies. Who would believe but that 
the Breviaries and Missals should have escaped their 
razor ? Yet, as it has been observed by persons of 
eminent learning and honesty, where it was read, in 
the collect on St. Peter's day heretofore thus : <e Deus, 
qui B. Petro Apostolo tuo, collatus clavibus regni cceles- 
tis, animas ligandi, et solvendi Pontificum tradidisti :*' 
(that is, O God, who hast committed to thy Apostle St. 
Peter, by giving him the keys of the heavenly kingdom, 
the episcopal power of binding and loosing souls) :f in 
the later editions of these Breviaries and Missals, they 
have wholly left out the word animas (souls) 5 to the end 
that people should not think that the Pope's authority 

* In qua Synodo, (quam Octavam Universalem illuc convenientes 
appellarunt) de imaginibus adorandis, secundum quod orthodoxi doc- 
tores antea definerant, statuerunt. {Aimon.de Gest. Franc, lib. 5,.c. 8.) 
— Legendum ; u Aliter qua orthodoxi definierant ;" sic enim legit ipse 
Baron. Annal. torn. 10. an. 869. 

f Simon Vigor. 1. 1. de la Monarch. Ecclesiastique, ch. 1. F. 
Paolo di Vinet. Apol. contr. Bellarm. Siclegiturin Brev. Clement. 
8. jussurecognitis, p. 937. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 59 

extended only to spiritual affairs, and not to temporal 
also. So likewise in the Gospel upon the Tuesday fol- 
lowing the Third Sunday in Lent, they have printed, 
" Dixit Jesus discipulis suis 5"* (that is, u Jesus said to 
his disciples"); whereas it was in the old'books, " Respi- 
ciens Jesus in discipulos dixit Simoni Petro, Si peccaverit 
in tefrater tuus" :f (Jesus, lookingback upon his disciples, 
said unto Simon Peter, If thy brother have offended 
against thee, &c), cunningly omitting those words re- 
lating to Simon Peter, for fear it might be thought that 
our Savour Christ had made St. Peter, that is to say, 
the Pope, subject to the tribunal of the Church, to which 
he there sends him. 

If the council of Trent would but have hearkened to 
Thomas Passio, a canon of Valencia, they should have 
blotted out of the Pontifical all such passages as make any 
mention of the people's giving their suffrage and con- 
sent in the ordination of the ministers of the Church ; 
and, among the rest, that where the bishop, at the ordi- 
nation of a priest, saith, " That it was not without good 
reason, that the Fathers had ordained that the advice 
of the people should be taken in the election of those 
persons who were to serve at the altar ; to the end that 
having given their assent to their ordination, they might 
the more readily yield obedience to those who were so 
ordained. "J The meaning of this honest canon was, that 
to take away all such authorities from the heretics, the 
best way would be to blot them all out of the Pontifical ; to 
the end that there might be no trace or footstep of 
them left remaining for the future. 

They have not, however, contented themselves with 
merely corrupting in this manner certain books, out of 
which perhaps we might have been able to discover 
what the opinion and sense of the ancients have been :§ 

* Sic legitur in Breviar. Clem. 8. jussu recogn. p. 369. 

f Sic legebatur in Brev. impres. Paris. 1492, per Jo. de Prato. 

X Neque enim fuit frustra a patribus institutum, ut de electione 
illorum, qui ad regimen altaris adhibendi sunt, consulatur etiam 
populus ; quia de vita et conservatione prsesentandi, quod nonnun- 
quam ignoratur a pluribus, scitur a paucis ; et necesse est, et facilius 
ei quis obedientiam exhibeat ordinato, cui assensum praebuerit ordi- 
nando Pontif.'JRom. de Ordinat. Presbyt. fol. 38. 

§ Pet. Soavez". Hist. Concil. Trident. 1. 7. 



60 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

but they have also wholly abolished a very great num- 
ber of others. And for the better understanding of this, 
we should notice that the emperors of the first ages took 
all possible care to suppress and abolish all such writ- 
ings as were declared prejudicial to the true faith ; as 
the books of the Arians and Nestorians and others ; 
which were forbidden to be read under a great penalty, 
but were to be wholly suppressed and abolished by the 
appointment of these ancient princes. 

The Church itself also sometimes called in the books 
of such persons ashad been dead long before by the com- 
mon consent of the Catholic party, as soon as they 
perceived anything in them that was not consonant to 
the present opinion of the Church : as it did at the 
fifth general council, * in the business of Theodorus, 
Theodoretus, and Ibas, all three bishops, the one of 
Mopsuestia, the other of Cyrus, and the third of 
Edessa ; anathematising each of their several writings, 
notwithstanding these persons had been all dead long 
before : dealing also, even in the quiet times of the 
Church, with Origen in the same manner, after he had 
been dead about three hundred years, f 

The Pope hath not failed to imitate, for the space of 
many ages, both the one and the other of these rigorous 
courses: increasing; moreover theharshness of them from 
time to time : insomuch that, in case any of the opinions 
of the ancients has been by chance found at any time to 
contradict his, there is no doubt but that he has very 
carefully and diligently suppressed such writings, with- 
out sparing any more than the others, though they 
were written perhaps two, three, four, or five hundred 
years before. As for example, it is at this time disputed, 
whether or not the primitive Church had in their 
temples, and worshipped, the images of Christ and of 
saints. 

This controversy has been sometimes very warmly, 
and with much heat, and for a long time together, dis- 
puted in the Greek Church. That party which main- 
tained the affirmative, bringing the business before the 

* Cone. 5. Col. 8. 

f Id. Col. 5. et Col. 8. Anath. 9. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 61 

seventh council held at Nicsea,* it was there ordained, that 
it should be unlawful for any man to have the books of 
the other party, and charging every man to bring what 
books they had of that party to the patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, to do with them, as we must conceive, ac- 
cording as had been required by the legates of Pope 
Adrian; that is, " That they should burn all those books 
which had been written against the venerable images :" 
\va Ttavra ra avyypayLjiara ra Kara tljv (jeirrb)v eiKOviov yevo- 
ixtva fj.tra avaO£fJ.aTi(TiAOv\eiavd(i)(TU',i] to) irvpi TrapaeodiA)Gi:\ 
including no doubt, within the same condemna- 
tion, all such writings of the ancients as seemed not to 
favour images ; as the epistle of Eusebius to Constantia; 
and that of Epiphanius to John of Hierusalem,and others 
which are not now extant : but were in all probability 
at that time abolished. As for the epistle of Epiphanius, 
that which we now have is only St. Hierome's transla- 
tion of it, which happened to be preserved in the 
western parts, where the feeling in behalf of images 
was much less violent than it was in the eastern : but 
the original Greek of it is no where to be found. 
Adrian II. in his council ordained, in like manner, that 
the council held by Photius against the Church of Rome 
should be burnt, together with his other books, and all 
the books of those of his party which had been written 
against the see of Rome : and he commanded the very 
same thing also in the eighth council, which is accounted 
by the Latins for a general council.^ 

It is impossible but that in these fires very many 
works must needs have perished that might have been 
of that use to us for discovering what the opinion of 
the ancients was, whether respecting images, which was 
the business of the seventh council -, or that other con- 
troversy respecting the power of the Pope, w 7 hich was 
the principal point debated in the synod held by Pho- 
tius 3 some of whnsa writings, for the self-same reason, 
they at this day keep at Rome under lock and key ; 
w 7 hich doubtless they would long ere this have pub- 

* Concil. 7, Act. 8, Can. 9. f Idem. Act. 5. 

\ Cap. 1. Habetur in Concil. 8. Act. 7. Ibid. Act. 1. in Ep. 
Adriani. 



62 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

lished, had they but told as much for the Pope as in all 
probability they tell against him. This rigorous pro- 
ceeding against books at length arrived to such a height, 
that Leo X., at the council of Lateran, which broke up 
an. 1518, decreed, " that no book should be printed 
but what had first been diligently examined at Rome by 
the Master of the Palace, in other places by the bishop, 
or some other person deputed by him for the same pur- 
pose, and by the Inquisitor, under this penalty, — That 
all booksellers offending herein should forfeit their 
books, which should be burnt in public, and should pay 
a hundred ducats, when it should be demanded, towards 
the fabric of St. Peter, (a kind of punishment this, 
which we find no example of in all the canons of the 
ancient Church) ; and should also be suspended from 
exercising his function, for the space of a whole 
year."* 

This is a general sentence, and which comprehends 
as well the works of the Fathers as of any others ; as 
appeareth plainly by this, that the bishop of Malfi, 
having given in his opinion, saying, that he concurred 
with them in relations to new authors but not to the 
old, all the rest of the Fathers voted simply for all ; f 
neither was there any limitation at all added to this 
decree of the council. This very decree has been since 
strongly confirmed by the council of Trent, J which ap- 
pointed also certain persons to take a review of the books 
and censures, and to make a report of them to the 
company, " to the end that there might be a separation 
made between the good grain of Christian verity and 
the tares of strange doctrines :"§ that is, inplain terms, 
that they might suppress all kinds of books that relished 
not well with the taste of the Church of Rome. But 
these Fathers, having not the leisure themselves to look 
to this pious work, appointed certain commissaries who 

* Cone. Later, sub Leone X. Sess. 10. 

t Responderunt omnes placere, excepto R. P. D. Alexio, episcopo 
Malfitano, qui dixit, Placere de novis operibus, non autem de anti- 
ques — Ibid. 

X Concil. Trid. Sess. 5. Decreto de Edit, et usu Sacror. libr. 

§ Quo facilius ipsa possit varias et peregrinas doctrinas, tanquam 
Zizania, a Christiana? veritatis tritico separare. — Idem Sess. 18. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 63 

should give an account of this matter to the Pope :* 
when, afterwards it came to pass, that Pope Pius IV. 
first, and afterwards Sixtus V. and Clement VIII. pub- 
lished certain rules and indexes of such authors and 
books as they thought fit should be either quite abolish- 
ed or purged only, and have given such strict order for 
the printing of books, as that in those countries where 
this order is observed there is little danger that ever any 
thing should be published, that is either contrary to the 
doctrine of the Church of Rome, or which advanceth 
any thing in favour of their adversaries. 

All these instructions, which are too long to be in- 
serted here, may be seen at the end of the council of 
Trent, where they are usually given at full. To enforce 
these rules they have put forth their Indices Expur- 
gatorii (as they call them) ; namely, that of the Low 
Countries, and of Spain and other places 5 where these 
gallants come with their razor in their hand, and sit in 
judgment upon all kinds of books, erasing and altering, 
as they please, periods, chapters, and often whole 
treatises, and that too in the works of those men who 
for the most part were born, and educated, and died 
also, in the communion of their own Church. 

If the Church, for eight or nine hundred years since, 
had razors sharp as these men now have, it is then a 
vain thing for us to search any higher what the judg- 
ment of the primitive Christians was on any particular 
point : for whatsoever it was, it could not have escaped 
the hands of such masters. And if the ancient Church 
had not heretofore any such institution as this, why 
then do we, who pretend to be such observers of anti- 
quity, practise these novelties ? I know very well that 
those men make profession of reforming only the writ- 
ings of the moderns : but who sees not that this is but 
a cloak which they throw over themselves, lest they 
should be accused as guilty of the same cruelty that Ju- 
piter is among the poets, for having behaved himself so 
insolently to his own father ? Those pieces which they 
erase so scrupulously from the books of the moderns, 
are the cause of the greater mischief to themselves, 

* Concil. Trident. Sess. 25. decreto de Indice libr. 



64 



CORRUPTIONS IN THE 



when they are found in the writings of the ancients, as 
sometimes they are. For what a senseless thing is it 
to leave them in where they hurt most, and to erase 
them where they do little harm. 

The inquisition at Madrid * omits these words in the 
Index of Athanasius, " Adorari soliusDei est 3" (that is, 
God alone is to be worshipped): 'Ovkovv Oeov kari /jlovov 
to irpovKvyetcrdaL :f and yet, notwithstanding, these words 
are still expressly found in the text of Athanasius. 
The same father saith, " that there were some other 
books, besides those which he had before set down, 
which, in truth, were not of the canon, and which the 
Fathers had ordained should be read to those who were 
newly come into the Christian communion, and desired 
to be instructed in the word of piety :" — 'Esri rat krepa 
(itfiXia TovTior eZuQev, ov Kavon^Ofieva jjiev, rervirioixEva Se 
irapa rcjy warepioy avayivwGKecrdaL tolq dprt TTpo(JEpypfxe.voiQ 
Kai fjovXofjievoiQ Karrj^eiffdat ror evcrefjetaQ Xoyov.X 

They reckoned in this number the Wisdom of Solo- 
mon, Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Esther, Tobit, and some 
others. Nevertheless these very censors erased, in the 
index of Athanasius's works,- those words which affirm 
that the said books are not at all canonical. In the 
index of St. Augustin they erased these words : " Christ 
hath given the sign of his body :" which yet are evident- 
ly to be seen in the text of this Father, in his book 
against Adimantus, chap. 12. § They erased, in like 
manner, these w T ords : " Augustin accounted the Eu- 
charist necessary to be administered to infants :" which 
opinion of St. Augustin is very frequently found ex- 
pressed either in these very words, or the like, through- 
out his works, as we shall see hereafter. They likewise 
erased these words : " We ought not to build temples 
to angels :" and yet the very text of St. Augustin says, 
" If we should erect a temple of wood or of stone to any 
of the holy angels, should we not be anathematized ?"|l 

* Ind. Expurgat. Sandoval, in Athanas. Ind. 1. 

t Athanas. Orat. 3, contra Arian. 

% Id. in Frag, et Pest. § Id. in August. 

II Nonne si templum alicui sancto angelo excellentissimo de Hgnis 
et lapidibus faceremus, anathematizemur a veritate Christi, et ab ec- 
clesia Dei, &c — Infr. I. 1. c. 8. Ind. Exp. Sadov. in August, contr. 
Maxim* HO. 






WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. DO 

This is the practice of the censors, both in the Low 
Countries and in Spain, in many other particulars, which 
we shall not here notice. Now if you cut off such sen- 
tences as these from the indexes of these holy Fathers ; 
why do you not as well erase them from the text also ? 
For if you leave them in the one, why do you blot 
them out in the other ? What can the meaning be of 
so strange a way of proceeding in such wise men ? Yet 
who sees not the reason of it ? The sentences which 
these men thus boldly and rudely correct, are as dis- 
pleasing to them in the ancients as in the moderns 3 and 
where they may safely do it they expunge them, as well 
from the one as the other. But this they dare not do 
openly, for fear of incurring scandal, which they are 
willing to avoid ; because if they should deal so un- 
ceremoniously, and take such liberty with antiquity, they 
would destroy that respect which all people bear towards 
it ; which being a matter that very nearly concerns 
themselves, is a special point of wisdom in them, care- 
fully to preserve its reputation. But in lashing the poor 
moderns, who have made indexes to all the works of 
the Fathers, they save their credit, and do their business 
too ; ruining the opinions which they hate by chastising 
the one, and still preserving the venerable esteem of 
antiquity, which they cannot exist without, by sparing 
the other. 

I cannot however see why Bertram, a priest, who 
lived in the time of the Emperor Charles the Bald, which 
is about seven hundred and fifty years ^ince, should be 
classed among the moderns : and yet his book, " De 
Corpore et Sanguine Domini," is absolutely, and with- 
out any limitation, forbidden to be read in the index 
of the council of Trent, in the letter B, among the au- 
thors of the second classis, as they call them. But the 
censors of the Low Countries have dealt with him more 
gently, shall T say rather, or more cruelly 3 not quite taking 
his life away, but only maiming him in the several parts 
of his body, and leaving him in the like sad condition 
with Deiphobus in the poet : — 

11 Lacerum crudeliter ora, 
Ora manusque ambas populataque tempora, raptis 
Auribus, et truncas inhonesto vulnere nares." 



66 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

For they have cut you off, with one single dash of their 
pen, two long passages, consisting each of them of twenty 
eight or thirty lines each, and which are large enough 
to make up a very considerable part of a small treatise, 
such as his. 

That the reader may the better judge of the business, 
I shall here extract one of these passages entire as it is : 

" We ought further to consider (says Bertram, speak- 
ing of the holy Eucharist) that in this bread is repre- 
sented not only the body of Christ, but the body of 
the people also that believe in Him. And hence it is 
that it is made up of many several grains of wheat, 
because the whole body of believing people is united 
together, and made into one, by the word of Christ. 
And therefore as it is by a mystery that we receive this 
bread for the body of Christ, in like manner it is by a 
mystery also, that the members of the people be- 
lieving in Christ are here figured unto us. As this 
bread is called the body of believers, not corporeally but 
spiritually ; so is the body of Christ also necessarily to be 
understood as represented here, not corporeally but 
spiritually. In like manner is it in the wane, which is 
called the blood of Christ; and with which it is ordained 
that water be mixed ; it being forbidden to offer the one 
without the other : because as the head cannot subsist 
without the body, nor the body without the head ; in 
like manner neither can the people be without Christ, 
nor Christ without the people. So that in this sacra- 
ment the water represents the image of the people. If 
then the wine, after it is consecrated by the office of 
ministers, be corporeally changed into the blood of Christ, 
of necessity then must the water also be changed cor- 
poreally into the body of the believing people : because 
that where there is but one only, and the same sanctifi- 
cation, there can be but one and the same operation ? 
and where the reason is equal, the mystery also that fol- 
lows it is equal. But as for the water, we see that there 
is no such corporeal change wrought in it : it therefore 
follows that neither in the wine is there any corporeal 
transmutation. Whatsoever then of the body of the 
people is signified unto us, by the water, is taken spiri- 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 6j 

tually : it follows therefore necessarily that we must, in 
like manner, take spiritually whatsoever the wine repre- 
sents unto us of the blood of Christ. Again, those 
things, which differ among themselves, are not the same. 
Now the body of Christ which died, and was raised up 
to life again, dies no more, having become immortal ; 
and death having no more power over it, it is eternal 
and free from further suffering. But this, which is con- 
secrated in the Church, is temporal, not eternal -, corrup- 
tible, not free from corruption ; in its journey, and not 
in its native country. These two things therefore are 
different, one from the other, and consequently cannot 
be one and the same thing. And if they be not one 
and the same thing, how can any man say that this is 
the real body and real blood of Christ ? If it be the 
body of Christ, and if it may be truly said that 
this body of Christ is really and truly the body of 
Christ — the real body of Christ being incorruptible and 
impassible, and therefore eternal ; consequently this 
body of Christ, which is consecrated in the Church, must 
of necessity also be both incorruptible and eternal. But 
it cannot be denied but that it doth corrupt, seeing it is 
cut into small pieces and distributed (to the communi- 
cants), who bruise it very small with their teeth, and so 
take it down into their body."* 

Thus Bertram. His other passage, which is longer 

* Considerandum quoque, quod in pane illo non solum corpus 
Christi, verum etiam corpus in eum credentis populi nguretur : unde 
multis frumenti granis conficitur, quia corpus populi credentis mul- 
tis per verba Christi fidelibus augmentatur, (al. coagmentatur). 
Qua de re sicut mysterio panis ille Christi corpus accipitur : sic etiam 
in mysterio membra populi credentis in Christum intimantur. Et 
sicut non corporaliter, sed spiritualiter panis ille credentium corpus di- 
citur : sic quoque Christi corpus non corporaliter sed spiritualiter ne- 
cesse est intelligatur. Sic et in vino, qui sanguis Christi dicitur, aqua 
misceri jubetur, nee unum sine altero permittitur offerri, quia nee po- 
pulus sine Christo, nee Christus sine populo, sicut nee caput sine cor- 
pore, vel corpus sine capite valet existere. Igitur si vinum illud, 
sanctincatum per ministrorum officium, in Christi sanguinem corpo- 
raliter convertitur, aqua quoque, quae pariter admixta est, in sangui- 
nem populi credentis necesse est corporaliter convertatur. Ubi 
namque una sanctificatio est, una consequenter operatio ; et ubi par 
ratio, par quoque consequitur mysterium. At videmus in aqua se- 
cundum corpus nihil esse conversum, consequenter ergo et in vino nihil 



6S CORRUPTIONS IN THE 

yet than this, is of the same nature ; but I shall not 
here set it down, to avoid prolixity.* 

Now these gentlemen, finding that the language of both 
these passages did very ill accord with the doctrine of 
Transubstantiation, thought it the best way to erase them 
entirely ; for fear lest, coming to the people's knowledge, 
they might imagine that there had been Sacramentarians 
in the Church ever since the time of Charles the Bald. 

Then, whoever you may be that think yourself bound 
to search the writings of the Fathers for the doctrine of 
salvation, learn from this artifice of theirs, and those 
many other cheats which we, to their great mortifica- 
tion, are now investigating, w 7 hat an extreme desire they 
have to keep from us the opinion and sense of the ancients 
in all those particulars where they ever so little contra- 
dict their own doctrines ; and remembering moreover, 
how every day they have had, and still have, such op- 
portunities of doing what they please in this way, you 
cannot doubt, but that they have struck deep enough 
where there was cause. These blows of theirs, together 
with the alterations and changes that time, the malice 

corporaliter ostensum. Accipitur spiritualiter quicquid in aqua de 
populi corpore significatur ; accipiatur ergo necesse est spiritualiter 
quicquid in vino de Christi sanguine intimatur. Item, quae a se dif- 
ferunt, idem non sunt : corpus Christi, quod mortuum est, et resur- 
rexit, et immortale factum jam non moritur, et mors illi ultra non 
dominabitur, aeternum est, jam non passibile. Hoc autem, quod in 
ecclesia celebratur temporale est, non aeternum ; corruptibile est, 
non incorruptibile, in via est, non in patria. Differunt igitur a se 
quapropter non sunt idem. Quod si non sunt idem, quomodo verum 
corpus Christi dicitur, et verus sanguis ? Si enim corpus Christi est, 
et hoc dicitur vere, quia corpus Christi in veritate corpus Christi est, 
et si in veritate corpus Christi, incorruptibile est, et impassible, ac 
per hoc aeternum. Hoc igitur corpus Christi quod agitur in ecclesia 
necesse est ut incorruptibile sit, et aeternum. Sed negari non potest 
corrumpi, quod per partes commutatum dispartitur ad sumendum, 
et dentibus commolitum in corpus trajicitur. — Bertram. Presbyt. lib. 
de Corp. et Sang. Dom. 

* Non male aut inconsulte omittantur igitur omnia haec a fine pa- 
ginae : 4 Considerandum quoque quod in pane illo, &c. ; usque ad 
illud multo post, ' Sed aliud est quod exteriiis geritur,' &c. in ead. 
pag. Et seq. pag. omnia ilia sequentia, ' Item quae idem sunt, una. 
definitione comprehenduntur,' &c. ; usque ad illud, ' Hoc namque 
quod agitur in via, spiritualiter,' &c. seq. pag. — Index jExpurg. Belg. 
in Bertramo. 



WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 69 

of heretics, the innocent and pious frauds of the primi- 
tive Church, and the sentiments of the later Christians, 
have long since produced, have rendered the writings 
and venerable monuments of antiquity, so jumbled and 
confused, that it will be a very difficult matter for any 
man to make a clear and perfect discovery of those things 
which so many different parties have endeavoured to 
conceal from us. 



70 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 



CHAPTER V. 

REASON V. THAT THE WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS ARE 

DIFFICULT TO BE UNDERSTOOD, ON ACCOUNT OF THE 
LANGUAGES AND IDIOMS IN WHICH THEY WROTE, 
AND THE MANNER OF THEIR WRITING, WHICH IS 
INCUMBERED WITH RHETORICAL FLOURISHES AND 
LOGICAL SUBTLETIES, AND WITH TERMS USED IN A 
SENSE FAR DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THEY NOW BEAR. 

If any man, either by the pure light of his own mind, or 
by the assistance and direction of some able and faithful 
hand, shall at length be able, as by the help of the clue 
of which the poets speak, to extricate himself happily 
from these two labrinths, and to find any pieces- of the 
ancients that are not only legitimate but also entire and 
uncorrupt ; certainly that man has just reason to rejoice 
at his own good fortune, and to give God hearty thanks. 
For I must needs confess that it is no very small satis- 
faction to a man to have the opportunity of conversing 
with those illustrious persons of ages passed, and to 
J earn of them what their opinions were, and to compare 
our own with theirs : — 

" Verasque an dire et reddere voces." 

But yet this I dare confidently pronounce, that if he 
would know from them what their sense and opinions 
have truly been, as to the differences now in agitation, 
he will find that he is now but at the very beginning and 
entrance of his business ; and that there remain behind 
many more difficulties to be overcome in his passage, 
than he hath yet grappled with. One of the two dis- 
agreeing parties refusing the Scriptures for the judge of 
controversies by reason of its obscurity, lays this for 



THE LANGUAGE OF THE FATHERS. /I 

a ground, (and indeed rationally enough) that no ob- 
scure books are proper for the decision of con- 
troversies. 

Now I do not know why a man may not, with as 
much reason, say of most of the writings of the Fathers, 
as St. Hierome did of some certain expositors of some 
parts of the Scriptures, " That it was more trouble to 
understand them well, than those very things which they 
took upon them to expound ;"* that is to say, that it is 
much harder rightly to understand them than the Scrip- 
tures themselves. For a man fully to comprehend them, 
it is in the first place necessary that we have perfe 
and exact skill in those languages wherein they wrote -, 
that is to say in the Greek and Latin, which are the 
tongues in which most of them wrote. As for those of 
the Fathers who have written either in Syriac or Arabic, 
or Ethiopian, or the like vulgar tongues of their own, 
whose writings perhaps would be as useful to us in the 
discovery of the opinions of the ancient Church as any 
others ; we have not, that I know, any of those monu- 
ments now publicly to be seen abroad, but only some 
translations of them in Greek or Latin : as, for in- 
stance, the works of St. Ephraim, (if at least those 
books, which go abroad under his name, be truly his :) 
and the " Comment, de Paradiso" of Moses Bar-Cephas, 
translated into Latin by Masius, and perhaps some few 
others. 

I know very well, that for the most part men trust 
to the translations of the Fathers, whether they be in 
Latin or in vulgar languages ; and that the world is now 
come to that pass, that people will not hesitate to take 
upon them to judge of the Greek Fathers, without hav- 
ing (at least, that can be perceived out of their writings,) 
any competent knowledge of the Greek tongue,f which 
cannot in my judgment be accounted any thing less than 
presumption. The thing is clear enough of itself, that 
to be able to reach the conceptions and sense of a man, 

* Pleruraque nimhim disertis accidere solet, ut major sit intelli- 
gentiae|difficultas in eorum explanationibus, quam in iis quae explanare 
conantur — Hier. ep. 139. ad Cypr. 

f Bellarmine. 



72 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

especially in matters of importance, it is most necessary 
that we understand the language he delivers himself 
in, his terms, and the manner of their coherence; there 
being in every particular language a certain peculiar 
force, and power of significancy, which can scarcely 
ever be so preserved in translation but that it will lose 
in the passage something of its natural lustre and vigour, 
however learned and faithful soever the interpreter be. 
But this, which is very useful indeed in all other cases, 
is most necessary in the particular business before us, by 
reason of the little care and fidelity that we find in the 
translations of the greatest part of the interpreters of the 
Fathers, whether ancient or modern. 

We have before seen how Ruffinus, and even St. Hie- 
rome himself, have laboured in this particular; and 
long after them, Anastasius also, in his translation of the 
7th council, who, notwithstanding in his preface to the 
8th gives us this for a most infallible rule j namely, 
that whatsoever is found in his translation is true and 
legitimate, and, on the contrary, whatsoever the Greeks 
have said, either more or less, is supposititious and 
forged. 

If all the other interpreters of the councils and 
Fathers had been men of the same temper that Anas- 
tasius here would have us believe him to be, we might 
then indeed very well lay by the Greek text, and content 
ourselves with such dull Latin as he hath furnished us 
with in his translation. But the mischief of it is, that 
all the world does not believe this testimony which he 
hath given of himself; and that, although he has such 
a special gift in valuing his own translation above the 
original -, yet this will hardly ever be allowed to other 
translators, especially the modern, who having been men 
that have been for the most part carried away by their 
affection to their own party, he must needs be a very 
weak man that should trust to them in this case, and 
rely upon what they say. 

Whosoever hath yet a mind to be further satisfied 
how far these men's translations are to be trusted, 
let him but take the pains to compare the Greeks pre- 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. /3 

face to Origen's books against Celsus, with the Latin 
translation of Christopherus Persona ; and, if he please, 
he will do well to run over some part of the books 
themselves : and if he is desirous of exposing himself 
to the laughter of the Protestants, let him but produce, 
upon the honest word of this worthy interpreter, 
this passage out of the fifth book for the Invocation of 
Angels : — " We ought to send up our vows, and all our 
prayers and thanksgivings to God, by the angel who 
has been set over the rest by him who is the Bishop, 
the living Word, and God :*" in which words he seems to 
intimate that Jesus Christ hath appointed some one of 
the angels to hear our prayers, and that by him we 
ought to present them to God ? whereas Origen says the 
direct contrary ; namely, " That we ought to send up to 
God, who is above a 1 ! things, all our demands, prayers, 
and requests, by the great High Priest, the living Word, 
and God, who is above all the angels :" — Uaoray jiev yap 
SerjGiv, kcll izaaav irpotrevyj^Vy Kai eyrev^tv kcil kv)(api(JTiav 
avcnTejjnrTeov toj stti waai deu), Sia rov ettl ttolvtw ayyeXwr 
ap\iepeu)Q, e/x'd/v^ov \oyov, kcii deov.f 

You have a sufficient discovery also of the affections 
of translators, who many times make their authors 
speak more than they meant, in Jo. Christopherson's 
translation of the ecclesiastical historians : as likewise 
in most of the translators of these later times, except- 
ing only some very few of the more moderate sort. 
But we shall not need to insist any longer on this par- 
ticular, which has been sufficiently proved already by 
the several parties of both sides discovering the false- 
ness of their adversaries' translations, as every man 
must know who is any way conversant with those 
kind of writings, where you shall meet with nothing 
more frequent than these mutual reprehensions of each 
other. 

Now, in the midst of such distraction, and contra- 
riety of judgments, how can a man possibly assure 

* Vota namque et preces omnes, et gratiarum insuper actiones ad 
Deum, sunt per Angelum transmittenda, qui per Pontificera, 'et 

vivens verbum, et Deum, angelis praefectus est cseteris Origen, 

Christoph. Persona, lib. contr. Celsum. 

f Orig. contr. Cels. 1. 5. p. 239. 
E 



74 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

himself that he hath the true sense and meaning of 
the Fathers, unless he hear them speak in their own 
language, and have it from their own mouth ? I shall 
here lay down then, for a most sure ground and unde- 
niable maxim, — 

That to be ab]e rightly to apprehend the judgment 
and sense of the Fathers, it is necessary that we first 
understand the language they write in ; and that too 
not slightly and superficially, but exactly and fully 5 
there being in all languages certain peculiar terms and 
idioms, familiarly used by the learned, w T hich no man 
shall ever be able to understand thoroughly and clearly, 
that hath but a superficial knowledge of the said languages, 
and hath not dived even to the depth and very bottom 
of them. If you would see how necessary the know- 
ledge of an author's language is, and how prejudicial 
the want of it ; do but turn to that passage of Theo- 
doret, where, speaking of the Eucharist, he saith thus : — 
'OvSe yap jiera rov ayiarrfjiov ra fivariica (rvfi(3o\a rrjg oIkei- 
ag e^LffTarcu (fvGEuyg* fievet yap kiri rrjg 7rporepag ovatag, cat 
rov (T^rjfJLarog, mi rov el()ovg.* 

The Protestants, and all their adversaries (before Car- 
dinal Perron), interpret this place thus : " The mystical 
symbols, after consecration do not leave their proper 
nature 3 for they continue in their first substance, figure, 
and form." Now what can be said more expressly 
against transubstantiation ? But yet the above named 
cardinal, having, it seems, consulted those old friends of 
his among the grammarians, who had heretofore taught 
him, that ^naivety signified to smoke, or evaporate^ will 
needs persuade us, that this passage is to be interpreted 
otherwise ; namely, that " the signs in the Eucharist 
continue in the figure and form of their first substance :" 
which would be tacitly and indirectly to allow transub- 
stantiation. Now it is true that this exposition is con- 
trary, not only to the design and purpose of the author, 
but to the usual way of speaking also among the Greeks. 
But in case you had not exact skill in the language, 

* Theod. Dial. 2. 

+ Perron Repel, p. 709. Answ. to the 2 Instit. where he takes 
this word to signify to fume ; whereas the true signification is, 
to pollute, or dejile. 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 75 

how should you he able to judge of this interpretation ? 
especially seeing it put upon you with so much confi- 
dence and unparalleled boldness,, according to the ordi- 
nary custom of this doctor, who never affirms or recom- 
mends anything to us more confidently, than when it is 
most doubtful and uncertain. 

It is out of the same rare and unheard-of grammar, 
that the said cardinal has elsewhere taken upon him 
to give us that notable correction of his, of the inscrip- 
tion of an epistle written by the emperor Constantine to 
Miltiades bishop of Rome, set down in the tenth book of 
Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, (c. 5), reading it thus : 
" Constantinus Augustus, to Miltiades bishop of the 
Romans, wisheth long time or long opportunity :" 
whereas all copies, both manuscript and printed, have 
it, " Constantinus Augustus, to Miltiades bishop of the 
Romans, and to Mark," (Kwv (jravrivog ^ejiaaroQ, MlXtl- 
aSr] i7n(TK07ra> Pw/zcuwv, kcu Mao/cw) :* fearing, I suppose, 
lest some might accuse the emperor of not understand- 
ing himself aright, inhere making this Mark companion 
to the Pope, who in all things ought to march without 
a compeer. 

I should never have done, if I should undertake to 
notice all those other passages, in which the cardinal 
has used the same arts, in wresting the words of the 
ancients to a wrong sense, which otherwise would seem 
to favour the Protestants : whence it may plainly ap- 
pear, how necessary a knowledge of the languages is, 
for the right understanding of the sense of the Fathers. 
So that, in my judgment, the result of all this will clearly 
be, that, as we have before said, it is a difficult thing to 
come to the right understanding of them. For who 
knows not what pains it will cost a man to attain to a 
perfect knowledge of these two tongues ? What abilities 
are necessarily required in this case ? A happy memory, 
a lively conception, a good education, continual appli- 
cation, and much and diligent reading 5 all which very 

* Perron, in his Repl. says we ought to read it thus : KuvarouTivog 
SfjSacTTOf, M^T/a8>j e7n0-xo7ra> V(x)[xa.iwv xtxipov /maxpov. But it seems 
more probable that we should read, xat MspoxXei, and to Merocles, 
who was at that time bishop of Milan, as is observed by Optatus, 
lib. 1, p. 334. 

E 2 



76 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

rarely meet in any one person. The truth of this is 
clearly proved, by the continual debates and disputes 
among those who, though they have referred the judg- 
ment of their differences to the decision of the Fathers, 
do yet notwithstanding still implead each other at their 
bar, and cannot possibly be brought to any agreement 
whatever. 

Many of the writers of the Church of Rome, object 
against the Protestants, as an argument of the obscurity 
of the Scriptures, the controversies that are betwixt them- 
selves and'the Lutherans; against theCalvinists,as regards 
the Eucharist; and of the Calvinists against the Luthe- 
rans, and the Arminians, in the point of predestination. 
If this argument of theirs be of any force at all, who 
sees not that it clearly proves that which we maintain 
in this particular ? For the Greeks and the Latins, who 
both of them make profession of submitting themselves 
to the authority of the Fathers, and to plead all their 
causes before them, have not as yet been able to come 
to any agreement. Do but observe the passages be- 
tween these two, at the council of Florence,* where the 
strongest and ablest champions on both sides were 
brought into the lists ; how they wrangled out whole 
sessions, about the exposition of a certain short passage 
in the council at Ephesus, and some similar one out of 
Epiphaniusf St. Basil, J and others : and- after all their 
disputes, how clearly and powerfully soever each party 
vaunted that the business was carried on, they have yet 
left us the sense of the Fathers much more dark and 
obscure than it was before ; their contests having ren- 
dered the business much more perplexed. Each side 
has indeed very much the appearance of reason in what 
they urged against their adversaries, but very little so- 
lidity in what they have said severally for themselves. 
Certainly the Latins, who are thought to have had the 
better cause of the two, (and who, upon a certain pas- 
sage of St. Basil adduced by themselves,§ triumphed as 

* Concil. Flor. Sess. 5, de Decreto quodam Concil. Eph. Act. 6, 
Sess. ll et 12. 

f Concil. Flor. Sess. 18, 20, et 21. J Jbid. Sess. 21. 

§ 'Ou X(Xju8avofxev Ttva ncupoL tou Trvev/uoiTOg, a>7rtp 7rocpa tou u/ou to 7rvtvy.a. 
Ibid, locus Basil. 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 77 

if they had gained the day — baffling and affronting the 
Greeks in a very disdainful manner, and giving them 
very harsh language), used, notwithstanding, such an 
odd kind of logic, to persuade the receiving of the expo- 
sition which they gave, as that even at this day, in the 
last edition of St. Basil's works, printed at Paris, and 
revised by Fronto Ducaeus,* the Latin translation fol- 
lows, in this particular, not their exposition, but that of 
the Greek schismatics. 

Some of the Protestants having also had the same 
success in some particular points controverted betwixt 
themselves, it lies open to every man's observation, how 
much obscurity there is found in the passages cited by 
both sides. If Tertullian was of the opinion of the 
Church of Rome, in the point concerning the Eucharist, 
what could he have uttered more dark and obscure 
than this passage of his, in his fourth book against 
Marcion ; " Christ having taken bread, and distributed 
it to his disciples, made it his body, in saying, This 
is my body 5 that is to say, The figure of my body/'f If 
St. Augustin held transubstantiation, what can the mean- 
ing be of these words of his, " The Lord hesitated not 
to say, This is my body, when he delivered only the 
sign of his body ?"J 

If these passages, and an infinite number of the like, 
do really and truly mean that which cardinal Perron 
pretends they do, then was there never anything of ob- 
scurity either in the riddles of the Theban Sphinx, or in 
the oracles of the Sybils. 

If you look on the other side, you will meet with 
some other passages in the Fathers, which seem to speak 
point blank against the Protestants ; as, for example, 
where they say expressly, " That the bread changeth its 
nature ; and that by the almighty power of God it be- 
comes the flesh of the Word :" and the like. And so in 



* Basil, in Orat. in Sacr. Baptis. p. 511, torn. 1. Edit. Paris, apud 
Michael. Sonnium anno 1618. 

f Accept um panem, et distributum discipulis, corpus suum ilium 
fecit, Hoc est corpus meum, dicendo, id est, Figura corporis mei. — 
Tertul. contr. Marc. I. 4, c. 40. 

X Non enim Dominus dubitavit dicere, Hoc est corpus meum, cum 
signum daret corporis sui.— Aug. cont, Adimant. c. 12. 



78 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

all the controversies between them, they produce such 
passages as these, both on the one side and on the 
other : some whereof seem to be irreconcileable to the 
sense of the Church of Rome, and some other to the 
sense of their adversaries. 

If cardinal Perron, and those other sublime wits of 
both parties, can have the confidence to affirm that they 
find no difficulty at all in these particulars, we must needs 
think that either they speak this merely out of bravado, 
setting a good face upon a bad matter ; or else, that both 
the wits and eyesight of all the rest of the world are mar- 
vellously dull and feeble, in finding nothing but dark- 
ness, where these men see nothing but light. Yet for 
all this, if there be not obscurity in these writings of 
the Fathers, and that very great too, how comes it to 
pass, that even these very men find themselves ever and 
anon so puzzled to discover the meaning of them ? How 
comes it to pass, that they are fain to use so many words, 
and make trial of so many tricks and devices, for the 
clearing of them ? Whence proceeds it, that so often, 
for fear of not being able to satisfy their readers, they 
are forced to cry down either the authors or the pieces 
out of which their adversaries produce their testimonies? 

What strange sentences and passages of authors are 
those that require more time and trouble in elucidating 
them, than in deciding the controversy itself, and which 
multiply differences rather than determine them -, often- 
times serving as a covert and retreating place to both 
parties ? Thus the sense and meaning of these words 
is debated : "This is my body." For the explaining of 
them there is brought this passage out of Tertullian -, 
and that other out of St. Augustin. Now I would have 
any man speak in his conscience what he thinks, whe- 
ther or not these words are not as clear, or clearer, than 
those passages which they quote from these Fathers, as 
they are explained by the different parties. I desire, 
reader, no other judge than yourself, whosoever you 
are ; only provided that you will but vouchsafe to read 
and examine that which is now said upon these places, 
and consider the strange turnings and contortions that 
they make us take, to bring us to the right sense and 
meaning of them. In a word, if the most able men that 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. ~9 

exist did not find themselves extremely puzzled and 
perplexed in distinguishing the genuine writings of the 
Fathers from the spurious, it is not likely that the cen- 
sors of the Low Countries, who are all choice and select 
men, should be obliged to shew us so ill an example of 
finding a way to help ourselves, when the authority of 
the ancients is strongly pressed against us by our ad- 
versaries, as they do, in excusing the expressions of the 
Fathers sometimes, by some handsomely- contrived in- 
vention, and in putting some convenient probable sense 
upon them.* 

What has been said, I am confident, is sufficient to 
convince any reasonable man of the truth of the asser- 
tion, that it is a very difficult matter to understand the 
sense and opinions of the Fathers by their books. But 
that we may leave no doubt behind us, let us briefly 
consider some few of the principal causes of this diffi- 
culty. 

Certainly the Fathers, having been wise men, all of 
them both spoke and wrote to be understood -, inso- 
much that, having both the will and the ability to do it, 
it seemeth very strange that they should not be able to 
attain the end they aimed at. But we must here call 
to mind what we have said before, that these controver- 
sies of ours having not in their time sprung up, they 
have no occasion, nor was it their design, either to speak 
or write anything respecting them. For these sages 
raised as few doubts in matters of religion as they could. 
Besides their times furnished them with sufficient mat- 
ter of dispute, in points which were then in agitation, 
without so much as thinking of those of ours now on 
foot. And they have very clearly delivered their sense 
in all those controversies on which they have entered. 
Even Tertullian himself, who is the most obscure 
amongst them all, has notwithstanding delivered him- 
self so clearly in the disputes between him and Marcion 
and others, that there is no place left to doubt what his 
opinions were on the points discussed. I am therefore 

* Plurimos in Catholicis Teteribus errores excogitato commento 
perssepe negamus, et commodum iis sensum affingiinus, dum oppo- 
nuntur in disputationibus, aut in conflictibus cum adversariis. — lnd* 
Exp, Belg. in Bertr. 



80 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

fully persuaded that if they had now lived, or that the 
present controversies had been agitated in their times, 
they would have delivered their judgment upon them 
very plainly and expressly. But seeing that they have 
not touched upon them, or only slightly, and as they 
came accidentally into their way, rather than from any 
design, we are not to think it strange, if we find them not 
to have spoken decidedly, and given their sense clearly 
as to these disputes of ours. 

As any man may easily observe in the ordinary 
course, those things that happen without design are never 
clear and full, but ambiguous and doubtful ; and often- 
times contrary, perhaps, either to the sense or the senti- 
ment of the person from whom they proceeded. Thus be- 
fore the springing up of that pernicious doctrine of Arius, 
who so much troubled the ancient Church, there was 
very little said of the eternity of the divine nature of 
Jesus Christ : or if the Fathers said anything at all of 
it, it was only en passant, and not by design : and hence 
it is also that what they have delivered in this particu- 
lar, is as obscure and difficult to be rightly understood, 
as those other passages of theirs that relate to our pre- 
sent controversies. 

Do but explain the meaning, if you can, of this pas- 
sage of Justin Martyr, in his treatise against Tryphon $ 
where he saith that " The God which appeared to Moses 
and to the Patriarchs, was the Son and not the Father ;"* 
inasmuch as the Father is not capable of loco-mo- 
tion, neither can he properly be said to ascend or de- 
scend : and that " No man ever saw the Father, but 
only heard his Son, and his angel, who is also God, by 
the will of the Father :'* — 'Qvte ovv 'A/Spaa/n, ovte Igclclk, 

OVTE IdKwfi, OVTE ClWoQ av0pOJ7TldV EL$E TOV TTCLTEpa Kdl Ctppi]' 
TOV KVpLOV TU)V TTaVTWV CLwXwQ, KCLl avTOV TOV XpMTTOV, dXX 
EKELVOVy TOV KCLTCt (JOvX/jV TT)V EKELVOV fCCU 6eOV OVTCLy ViOV 

uvtov, fcai ayyEkoVy ek tov virnpETEtv ttj yviofiy civtov, &C.f 

These words of his cannot be very well explained, 
without allowing a difference of nature in the Father 
and the Son ; which were to establish Arianism. 

Observe what Tertullian also says, in this particular, 

* Just, contr. Try ph. p. 283, et 356, edit. Paris. 1615. 
f Ibid. p. 357. 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 81 

namely, " That the Father, bringing him forth out of 
himself, made his Son ;"* and, "That the Father is the 
whole substance, and the Son a portion, and a deriva- 
tion of that whole ;"f and many other similar passages, 
which you meet with here and there, in that excellent 
piece of his, written against Praxeas, which will scarcely 
be reconciled to good sense. In like manner does Dio- 
nysius Alexandrinus call the Son, " The work, or 
workmanship, of the Father :" Hoirjjjia kcll yevrirov elvai 
tov vlov tov Oeov : X which are the very terms that were 
so much quarrelled about in Arius. The eighty Fathers, 
who condemned Paulus Samosatenus bishop of Antioch, 
said expressly, " That the Son is not of the same es- 
sence with the Father :"§ that is to say, they in express 
terms denied the ofioovarLov, or consubstantiality of the 
Son, which was afterwards established in the council 
of Nice. 

It would be no difficult matter to make good the as- 
sertion in reference to all the other disputes that have 
arisen in the Church against Macedonius, Pelagius, 
Nestorius, Eutyches, and the Monothelites ; that the 
Fathers have spoken very obscurely of these mattert, 
before the controversies were started ; as persons that 
spoke only incidentally thereof, and not with previous 
design. It is now long since that St. Hierome said, 
" That before that Arius, that impudent devil, appeared 
in the world, the Fathers had said many things inno- 
cently, and without taking much heed of their words, as 
they might have done 3 and indeed some things that 
can hardly escape the cavils of wrangling spirits." || This 
has also been observed by some of the most learned 



* Quern ex semetipso proferendo, Filium fecit Tertul. lib, 2, contr. 

Marc. c. 27. 

t" Pater tota substantia est, nlius vero derivatio totius, et portio. 
— Id. I. cont. Prax. cap. 9, et passim in eo opere. 

J Dion. Alex, apud Athanas. ep. de fide Dion. Alex. Vide et 
Basil, ep. 51, t. 2. p. 802. 

§ Octoginta Episcopi olim respuerunt to ojmoova-iov, — Athan. ep. de 
Syn. Arim. et Seleu. Vide et Hilar, de Syn. 

|| Vel certe antequam in Alexandria quasi Daemonium meridianum 
Arius nasceretur, innocenter quaedam, et minus caute locuti sunt, 
et quae non possint perversorum hominum calumniam declinare. — 
Hier. Apol. 2, contr. Ruff. 

E 5 



82 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

among the moderns ; as cardinal Perron,* and also the 
Jesuit Petavius (a man highly esteemed by those of 
his own party) who, writing upon Epiphanius, and en- 
deavouring to clear Lucian the Martyr from the suspi- 
cion of being an Arian and a Samosatenian, says, "That 
in this question respecting the Trinity, as also in various 
others, it has so happened that most of the ancient Fa- 
thers, who wrote before the rise of those particular 
heresies in the Church, have in their writings let fall 
here and there such things as are not very consonant 
to the rule of the orthodox faith. "t 

Since therefore they have done thus in other points, 
what wonder is it if they have likewise done the same 
in these particular controversies at this day disputed 
amongst us ? and that having lived so long before 
the greatest part of these controversies arose, they 
have spoken of them so obscurely, doubtfully, and con- 
fusedly ? For my part I think it would have been the 
greater wonder of the two, if they had done otherwise ; 
and shall account it as a very great sign of forgery, in 
any piece which is attributed to antiquity, whenever I 
find it treating expressly and clearly of these points, 
and as they are now-a-days discussed. Only compare the 
expressions of the most ancient Fathers, on the divinity 
and eternity of the Son of God, with their expressions 
on the nature of the Eucharist ; and certainly you will 
find, that the former are not more wide of the truth at 
this day professed on this last point, than the other were 
from the doctrine long since declared in the coun- 
cil of Nice. This council expressly and positively 
declared, " That the Son is consubstantial with the 
Father." The council of Antioch bad before denied this. 
Whether the Fathers therefore affirm or deny that the 
Eucharist is really the body of Christ, they will not 
however therein contradict thy opinion (whosoever thou 

* Perron. Repl. Obs. 4. c. 5. 

-j- Quod idem plerisque veterum Patrum, cum in hoc negotio (Tri- 
nitatis), turn in aliis fidei Christiana? capitibus, usu venit, ut ante 
errorum atque heresewn quibus ea sigillatim oppugnabantur, originem, 
nondum satis illust rata et patefactarei veritate, quaedam scriptis suis 
asperserint, quae cum orthodoxae fidei regula minime consentiant, — 
Dion. Pclav. in Panar, Epiph, ad Hccr. 69. qucc est Avian. 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 83 

art, whether Romanist or Protestant) any more than 
the Fathers of the council of Antioch seem to have 
contradicted those of the council of Nice. 

We may here add, that as the Arians ought not in 
reason to have adduced, in justification of their opinions, 
any such passages of the Fathers as had fallen from them 
inadvertently, and in discoursing on other subjects, 
without any idea of establishing an opinion thereon ; so 
neither, to say the truth, is there any reason, that either 
thou or I should produce, as definitive sentences upon 
our present controversies which have arisen but of late 
years, any such passages of the Fathers as were written 
by them, in treating of other matters many ages before 
the commencement of our differences, of which they 
never had the least idea ; and concerning which they 
have delivered themselves very diversely and obscurely, 
and sometimes also seemingly contradicting themselves. 
And as we find that some of the faithful Christians, 
who lived after these primitive Fathers, have endeavour- 
ed to reconcile their sayings to the truth which they 
professed j as Athanasius hath done in some passages of 
Dionysius Alexandrinus/* and of the Fathers of the 
council of Antioch ; in like manner ought we to use 
our utmost endeavour to make a fair interpretation of 
all such passages in the writings of these men, as seem 
to clash with the true orthodox belief on the Eucharist 
and similar other points : not accounting it any great 
wonder, if we sometimes chance to meet with passages 
which seem to be utterly inexplicable. For it may so 
fall out that they may be really so ; for it is very pos- 
sible, that in the points touching the person and the 
natures of the Son of God, some such expressions may 
have fallen from them, as is very well known to those 
who are versed in their writings. Possibly also we may 
meet with some passages of theirs, which, though they 
may be explicable in themselves, may notwithstanding 
appear to us to be inexplicable ; by reason perhaps of 
our wanting some of those circumstances which are 
necessarily requisite for elucidating and clearing 

* A than, ep. de fid. Dionys. Alex, et ep. de Syn. Arim. et Seleuc. 
ubi supra. 



84 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

the same . as for example, when we are ignorant of the 
scope and drift of the author, and of the connexion and 
dependencies of his discourse, and other similar particu- 
lars which are requisite for the penetrating into the sense 
of all kinds of writers. For it is with men's words as 
it is with pictures : they must have their proper light to 
shew themselves according to the meaning and intention 
of the author : and according to the difference of the 
lights we see them by, they also have a different ap- 
pearance. As for example, if any one should now 
urge alone, and barely without reference to the rest of 
the discourse and history of its author, this short pas- 
sage of Dionysius Alexandrinus, where he calls the Son 
of God, Trot-qua tov Qsov, (the workmanship, or manu- 
facture, of the Father) ;* and adds certain other very 
strange terms, also touching this particular, (as we daily 
see the custom of some is, in the business of our pre- 
sent controversies, to produce the like shreds and little 
short passages severed from the main body of the dis- 
course whereof they are a part) ; which of us, how able 
soever he be, could possibly imagine any thing else, 
but that this is an absolute Arian expression, and such 
as cannot be interpreted in any other sense ? And yet 
Athanasius, in the places before cited, makes it plainly 
appear that it is not so ; and by the advantage of those 
lights which he had in the subject there treated of by 
the author, he demonstrates to us that this expres- 
sion of Dionysius, how strange soever it appear, hath 
notwithstanding a good and allowable sense in that 
place. 

That we may be enabled more fully to elucidate the 
subject, we shall in the next place take into considera- 
tion some other causes of the obscurity of the Fathers 5 
among which I shall rank, in the first place, their having 
sometimes purposely, and from design, endeavoured 
either wholly to conceal their conceptions from us, or 
at least to lay them down, not clear and open, but as it 

* Iloi^a xou yevrjTOv slvai tov u/ou tou ©eou, //rjTe 8a <bv<rei /oW, a\h<x 
%tvc\> xax' i$ia)> el\>ou tou 7rarpog, wamp \<mv h yswpyog, npog rr,v ay.7re\ov f 
xt.i wg 6 Muvn-^yog npog to axottyog' xat yap wg 7roir,fxa. cuv, oux rjv wpiv 
ytwqrtu. 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. S5 

were with a curtain (and that sometimes a very thick 
one too) drawn over them, to the end that none but 
those of the quickest and most piercing eyes should be 
able to penetrate them : some of their meditations hav- 
ing been such as they themselves accounted either of 
little use, or else such as it was not so safe to commit 
to weak vulgar spirits. Whether this practice of theirs 
were raised upon good grounds or not, I shall not here 
stay to examine : it is sufficient for me to show that it 
was usual with them, as may appear, among others in 
Clemens Alexandrinus, about the beginning of his 
Stromateis, where, giving an account of the design of his 
book, he says that, " He had passed over some things 
in silence, fearing to write that of which he made some 
scruple even to speak : not that he envied his readers 
any thing, but fearing rather lest they might haply, 
from misunderstanding them, fall into error ; and thus 
he might seem to have put a sword into the hand of a 
child." He adds further, "That he had handled some 
things clearly, and some other obscurely ; laying the 
one open to our view, but wrapping up the other in 
riddles : ' — Ta \.iev ekojp irapa-KEixizo^ai, iicXeyiov eirKTr^jiov^i;, 
(pojiovfjLevog ypa(pciv, a mi Xeyeiv ecpvXa^ajjLrjy' 6v ti ttov 
odovojv, 6v yap Sejullq 9 ceclcoq ce apa 7repi tujp iyrvy^civovTiov , 
fir) TTij krepujg oxbaXetev, kcll waiCi nayaipar y ?/ (pctaiy ol 7rapot- 
jiia^OjiEvoi, opeyovTEQ evpedojuev, &c. etl Se a /cat alyilerat 
futOL ypatyrj, Kai tolq \xev it a patrrrj get ul , ra ce \xovov EpEi. * 

That which tells most to our present purpose is, that 
they are known to have taken this course particularly in 
some of those points which are now controverted 
amongst us ; as in that touching the Sacraments of the 
Church. For as they celebrated their holy mysteries in 
secret and apart by themselves, not admitting either the 
Pagans or the Catechumeni, nor yet (as some assure us) 
any person whatsoever, save only the communicants to 
the sight of them ;f in like manner also in their writings, 
especially in those that were to be read openly to the 
people in their public assemblies, they never spoke but 

* Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 
f Cassand. in Liturg. c. 26. 






86 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

very obscurely and darkly, as has been observed on the 
subject of the Eucharist by cardinal Perron, and by 
Casaubon, Petavius, and others, and also in the points 
of baptism, confirmation, and other holy ceremonies of 
the Christians.* Observe how wary Theodoret, Epipha- 
nius, and other ancient writers are, in adverting to the 
subject of the Eucharist ; describing it in general terms 
only, and such as they only could understand, who had 
been formerly partakers of that Holy Sacrament. 

I shall not here take upon me to examine the end 
which they proposed to themselves in so doing, which 
seems to have been to implant in the minds of the 
Catechumeni a greater reverence and esteem for the Sa- 
craments, and for more earnest and eager desire to be ad- 
mitted to partake of them : fearing lest the laying open 
and discoursing plainly on the matter and manner of 
celebrating the Sacraments might lessen these feelings 
for them. 

Seeing therefore that not only in this, but in divers 
other particulars also, they have purposely and from 
design concealed their meaning and opinions from us ; 
we ought not to account it so strange a matter, if we 
many times find their expressions to be obscure, (and 
which is a consequence of obscurity,) if they sometimes 
also seem to clash, and contradict one another. Indeed, 
it were more to be wondered at, if these men, who were 
for the most part able and learned, having a purpose of 
writing obscurely on these points, should yet have left 
us their opinions clearly and plainly delivered in their 
writings. But there is still more in it : for sometimes, 
even where they had no purpose of being so, they yet 
are very obscure : and again, the little conversation 
they have had with those arts, which are requisite for 
the polishing of language, was the cause of their not 
expressing themselves so clearly : and sometimes 
perhaps their genius and natural disposition might be 
the reason ; all their study and industry not being able 
to correct this natural defect in them. 

I believe we may very safely reckon Epiphanius in 
the first rank of these kind of writers, who was indeed a 

* Casaub. in Bason, exercit. 16. 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. ST 

good and holy man, but yet had been very little conver- 
sant in the arts, either of Rhetoric or Grammar, as 
appears sufficiently from his writings ; where he is often 
found failing, not only in the clearness of his expres- 
sions, and in the flow and adaptation of his periods, but 
also even in their order and method, which is the true 
mode of elucidating all discourse. These defects must 
necessarily be the cause of much obscurity in many 
places ; and indeed is much complained of by the inter- 
preters of this Father. 

Others perhaps there have been, who have en- 
deavoured to polish their language by art, who yet have 
not been able to compass their intention -, whether it 
were, because they began too late, or else perhaps 
through the dulness of their wit, and want of capacity -, 
as we see that all natures are not capable of receiving all 
forms, whatever pains and industry they take, for the 
making such impressions. In this number you may 
reckon that Victorinus, of whom St. Hierome gives this 
so favourable testimony, saying, that, though indeed he 
wanted learning, he wanted not a desire and good will 
to learning.* 

Such another also was Ruffinus, whose language and 
expressions the same great censor of the ancients so 
sharply reproveth, noticing in him many improprieties 
of speech, and other absurdities : and yet for all this he 
would not be taken off from his scribbling humour; f and 
which is more, he did not want those who admired 
him : it being commonly observed, that those who wrote 
most in any age were not always the ablest men ; this 
mania existing rather in the ignorant than in the other. 
Photius, in his Bibliotheca, has noticed the like defects 
in some of his Greek writers. 

Yet this obscurity in the Fathers has proceeded, not 
from their ignorance, but rather from their great learn- 
ing ; for those among them, who were furnished with all 
kind of secular learning, and had been trained up from 
their infancy in the eloquence and knowledge of the 
Greeks, could not but retain this tincture, and some- 

* Victorino Martyri in libris suis licet desit eruditio, tamen non 
deest eruditionis voluntas. — Hier. ep. 84, ad Magn. 
f In Apol. 1, in Run 7 , et Apol. 2, et Apol. ad Ruff. 



88 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

times also had their flights, and made shew of this their 
treasury ; by this means mixing with the Christian 
philosophy many exotic words, customs, and discourses : 
which mixture, though it gives indeed much pleasure 
to the learned, must necessarily render the sense of 
these authors the more dark and perplexed. 

What can you name more mixed or fuller of variety, 
than Clemens Alexandrinus's Stromata, as he calls them, 
and his other works, which are throughout interwoven 
with historical allusions, opinions, sentences, and pro- 
verbs, out of all kinds of writers, both sacred and pro- 
fane ; being here heightened with rich and light colours, 
there shaded with darkness, to such a degree that it is 
vain for an ignorant person to hope ever to obtain his 
meaning ? 

What shall I say of Tertullian, who, notwithstanding 
that natural harshness and roughness in which he every 
where abounds, and that Carthaginian spirit and genius 
which is common to him with the rest of the African 
writers, hath yet shadowed and overcast the brilliancy of 
his conceptions with so much learning, and with so many 
new terms and phrases of law, and with such variety of 
allusions, subtilties, and nice points, that the greatest 
store of learning and attention you may possess, will 
be all little enough to give you a perfect understanding 
of him. 

I shall not here speak any thing of St. Hilary, of the 
loftiness of his imagination, of the sublimity of his 
language, and of that Cothurnus Gallicanus which St. 
Hierome has noticed in him, and in others of his 
countrymen. Neither shall I here take any notice of 
the copiousness of the Africans, nor of the subtilty of 
the Athenians, and of those that had their education 
among them, the consideration of all which particulars 
would afford matter for an entire volume. I shall only 
say in general, that as the manner of the Christian 
writing and expounding the Scriptures was at first very 
plain, easy, and brief; in a very short time it began to 
be changed, and to be filled with subtilties, and 
flourishes of secular learning, as testified by Methodius 
in Epiphanius? " The doctors (saith he) no longer 
regarding an honest, plain, and solid way of teaching, 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 89 

began now to endeavour to please, and to be favourably 
received by their auditors ; just as sophisters are wont 
to do, who consider their labours rewarded by their 
auditors applauding their learning ; thus selling them- 
selves at so cheap a rate. For as for the ancients, 
their expositions were always very brief 3 their utmost 
ambition in those days being not to please but to profit 
their hearers :" — Tcor SidcMTKaXcov ovte irpog to fieXricrToy 
afJLiWojfxevGJv in kcli (tejj.vop, aWa wpog to aptcrat kcil evyj- 
fj.epr](Tai' Kada-rrep oi 2o<^>iotcu_, 01 julktOov alpovvTai tlov Xoytov 

E7TEVli)l>l£ojJlEl>Ot TTJQ (TO(j)LaQ ETTCUVOIQ. To fJLEV OVV TTClXcUOV 

fipayy ttclvteXioq to nipt tt\v ilflyqcnv 77V, ^lXotl/jlovixevlov 
fxrj TEpwEiv, aAXa loc^eXelv Tovg izapovTag tlov tote.* 

Gregory Nazianzen also very keenly, and with his 
usual eloquence, thus complains : — i{ There was a time 
(saith he) when our affairs flourished, and we were in a 
happy estate, when this vain and loose kind of divinity, 
which is every where now in fashion, together with all 
its artifices and delicacies of language, was not at all 
admitted into the sheepfolds of the Lord. In those days, 
to listen to or to vent any novelties or curiosities in 
divinity, was thought like playing the juggler, and shew- 
ing tricks of legerdemain, with cunning and nimble 
shifting of balls under a cup, deceiving the eyes of the 
spectators ; or else by delighting them with the various 
and effeminate motions and windings of a lascivious 
dance. On the contrary, rather a plain, masculine, and 
free way of discourse was then accounted the most 
pious. But now, since the Pyrrhonians and Sextos' 
faction, together with the tongue of contradiction, have, 
like a grievous, malignant disease, broken in upon our 
Churches, — since babbling is now allowed for learning, 
and as in the Acts it is said of the Athenians, Since we 
spend our time in nothing else but in hearing or telling 
some new thing,— O for some Jeremiah,to bewail the con- 
fusion and darkness we lie under ; who might furnish 
us, as that prophet was only able to do, with lamenta- 
tions suitable to our calamities !" — Hj> ote riK^a^E :a 
EjJL£TEpa y kcli KaXiog icryEv, yivikcl to \xev irEptTTOv tovto kcli 
KaTEy\u)TTL<j}JLEVov Trjg dEoXoytag, kcli ivTEyvov^ ovSe napohov 

* Method, apud Epiph. Haer. 64. 



90 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

tlytv elg Tag Oeiag avXag* aXXd ravrov 77V, \pr)<poig re 
Traifeiv Tt\v 6\piv, KknrTOvaatg rep Ta^u rrjg fxeradecrewg, rj 
Karopyeiodai tljv Oearwv iravTOioig kcu avSpoyvvoig Xoyia- 
/jclgl, feat 7T£pi Qeov Xeyeir ti, feat clkovelv Kairorepov, ku.1 
7repiepyov. To Se airXovv te Kai evyeveg rov Xoyov ivvefleta 
epojjll^eto. 'A^' ov Se Se^rot, feat Uvppwveg, mi fj aVrt- 
derog yXuaoa, war7rep tl vodr\\xa ^elvov kcll KdKorjdeg ratg 
eKKXrjffiaig y]fiu)v elrrecpOapri, Kai f] (pXvapia 7raidev(Tig edofe, 
Kai 6 (prj(TL irepi AOrjpdiiov rj (iifiXog nov Iloa^ea)^, el ovSev 
dXXo evKCLipovfiev, r} Xeyeiv tl rj clkovelv Kaivorzpov w tlq 
'lepefxiag odvperai rrjv fj/JLerepav avy^ytnv Kai (tkotojjlcllvclv, 
6 jiovog elScvg i&aovv Oprjvovg naQeoiv.* 

Certainly St. Hierome, in his Epistle to Pammachius,f 
avows, that even for his writings also, it is necessary 
that the reader be acquainted both with the niceties of 
logic, and all the flourishes of rhetoric. This censure 
of his reaches also to the writings of Origen, Methodius, 
Eusebius, Apollinaris, Tertullian, Cyprian, Minutius, 
Victorinus, Lactantius, Hilary, and others, whom he 
affirms to have all observed the same method in their 
writings.]: 

Now although any rational man must willingly grant 
that the translations of terms and figures, either in word 
only, or in things themselves, and such other ornaments 
of rhetoric, with all the subtilties of logic — and, in a 
word, all the artifices of learning, must necessarily ren- 
der any discourse the more obscure and dark. 

For the fuller elucidation of this point, I shall here 
add some proofs and examples. St. Hierome declares 
himself sufficiently of this opinion, § where he attributes 
the cause of the obscurity found in the writings of cer- 
tain authors to their being too learned and eloquent. 
Sixtus Senensis observes, that the Fathers have uttered 
many things in the warmth of feeling, which we are not 
to take in a strictly literal sense. || Petavius has also 
observed, " that the Fathers have uttered in their ho- 
milies many things which cannot be reconciled to good 
sense, if we examine them by the exact rule of truth."^[ 

* Greg. Naz. Enc. Athan. 

•f Hieron. ep. 50, ad Pammach. et passim, ibid. $ Id. ibid. 

§ Hier. sup. Ep. 139. ad. Cypr. 

|| Sixt. Senens. Biblioth. lib. 6. Annot. 152. 

% Malta sunt a sanctissimis Patribus, praesertimque a Chrystomo 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 91 

We often excuse this in them, by shewing that under so 
many flowers and leaves, wherewith they crown their 
discourses, they many times convey a different sense 
from that which their words in appearance seem to 
bear. 

Who has not observed the strange hyperboles of St. 
Chrysostom, St. Hilary, St. Ambrose, and others ? But 
that I may make it plainly and evidently appear how 
much these ornaments darken the sense of an author, 
I shall only here lay before you one instance, taken 
from St. Hierome ; who, writing to Eustochium, gives 
her an account, how he was brought before the presence 
of our Lord, for being too much addicted to the study 
of secular learning, and was there really with stripes 
chastised for it. " Think not (says he) that this was 
any of those drowsy fancies or vain dreams which some- 
times deceive us. I call to witness hereof, that tribu- 
nal before which I then lay ; and that said judgment, 
which I was then in dread of. So may I never hereafter fall 
into the like danger, as this is true ! I do assure you 
that I found my shoulders to be all over black and blue 
with the stripes I then received, and which I afterwards 
felt when I awoke. So that I have ever since had a 
greater affection to the reading of divine books, than I 
ever before had to the study of human learning."* 

Now hearing Hierome speak thus, who would not be- 
lieve this to be a true story ? and who would understand 
this narration in the literal sense ? Yet it appears plainly, 
from what he has elsewhere confessed, that all this was but 
a mere dream, and a rhetorical piece of artifice, frequently 
used by the masters in this art 5 contrived only for the 
better and more powerful diverting men from their too 
great affection to the books of the heathens. For Ruffi- 
nus, quarreling with him on this account, and object- 



in homiliis aspersa, quae si ad exactae veritatis regulam accommodare 
volueris, boni sensus inania videbuntur. — Petav. Not. in JEpiph. 

* Nee vero sopor ille fuerat, aut vana somnia, quibus saepe delu- 
dimur. Testis est tribunal illud, ante quod jacui ; testis judicium 
triste quod timui. Ita mihi nunquam contingat in talem incidere 
quaestionem ; liventes fateor habuisse me scapulas, plagas sensisse 
post somnum, et tanto dehinc studio divina legisse, quanto non 
ante mortalia legeram. — Hier. ep. 21. ad Eustock. 



92 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

ing against him, that, contrary to the oath which he had 
before taken, he did notwithstanding still apply himself 
to the study of Pagan learning : St. Hierome, after he 
had alleged many things to clear himself from this ac- 
cusation, says, " Thus you see what I could have urged 
for myself, had I promised any such thing waking : But 
now do but take notice of this new and unheard of kind 
of impudence ; he objects against me my very dreams/'* 
Then presently he refers him to the words of the pro- 
phets, saying, " We must not take heed to dreams ; 
for neither does an adulterous dream cast a man into 
hell, nor that of martyrdom bring him to heaven/'f 
lie at last plainly observes, that this promise of his was 
made only in a dream ; and that therefore consequently 
it carried no obligation with it. J 

Who knows but that the Life of Malchus, which 
Hierome has so delicately and artificially related to us, 
and some other similar pieces of his, and of some others, 
may be the like displays of imagination ? We see he 
does not hesitate to confess, that the Life of Paulus Ere- 
mita was accounted for such by some of his friends : 
and it is very probable that his 47th epistle,§ w T hich is 
so full of learning and eloquence, is but an essay of the 
same nature ; he having there fancied to himself a fit 
subject only whereon to shew his own eloquence, 
agreeably to the usual manner of orators. 

Thus you see, reader, what great darkness is cast 
over the writings of the ancients by these figures and 
flourishes of rhetoric, and other artifices of human 
learning, which they so often and so over-licentiously 
use, at least as regards ourselves j who, to our great 
disadvantage, find that so many ornaments and embel- 
lishments rather disguise from us the depth of their 
conceptions. Who shall assure us, that they have not 

* Haec dicerem si quippiam vigilans promisissem. Nunc autem 
novum impudentia? genus, objicit mini somnium meum. — Hier. ApoL 
adv. Rujjin. 

t Audiat prophetarum voces, somniis non esse credendum ; quia 
nee adulterii somnium ducit me ad Tartarum, nee corona martyrii in 
coeluni levat. — Ibid. 

\ Tu a me somnii exigis sponsionem. — Ibid. 

§ Hier. in vit. Hilarion. 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS, 93 

made use of the same arts in their discourses on the 
Eucharist ; to advance the dignity of the divine myste- 
ries, and to increase the people's devotion ? and likewise, 
as regards the power of the prelates, to procure them 
the greater respect and obedience from their people ? 
What probability is there that they would spare their 
pencils, their colours, their shadows, and their lights, 
in those points where this their art might have been 
employed to such good purpose ? 

To this place I shall refer those other customs, which 
are so frequent, of denying and affirming things as it 
were absolutely ; notwithstanding the purpose and intent 
of their discourse be to deny or affirm them only by way 
of comparison, and reference to some other things. Who 
cannot but think that St. Hierome was tainted with the 
heresy of Marcion, and of the Encratics, when we hear 
him so fiercely inveigh against marriage, as he does in 
his books against Jovinian ; and often also in other 
places to such a degree, that there have sometimes 
fallen from him such words as these : " Seeing that in 
the use of the woman there is always some corruption ; 
and that incorruption properly belongeth to chastity ; 
marriage (says he) cannot be accounted of so high es- 
teem as chastity."* And a little after : "My opinion 
is, that he that hath a wife, until such time as he 
returns to such a state, as that Satan tempts him 
not, (that is to say, so long as he makes use of her as 
a wife,) sows in the flesh, .and not in the spirit Now 
he that soweth in the flesh, (it is not I that say it, but 
the Apostle,) the same shall reap corruption.' 'f 

Now the above words, taken literally, condemn mar- 
riage and the use thereof, as defiling a man, and de- 
priving him of a blessed immortality. Yet, notwith- 
standing, in his epistle to Pammachius,J he informs us, 
that these passages of his, and all other similar ones, 
are not to be understood as spoken positively and abso- 

* Si corruptio ad omnem coitum pertinet, incorruptio autem pro- 
prie castitaiis est : praemia pudicitise nuptiae possidere non possunt. 
— Hier. lib. ISadversUs Jovin. 

f Existimo quod qui uxorem habet, quandiu revertitur ad id ip- 
sum ne tentet eum Satanas, in came seminet, et non in spiritu. Qui 
autem in carne seminat, (non ego, sed Apostolus loquitur,) metit 
corruptionem — Ibid. 

\ Id. ep. 50, ad Pammachium. 



94 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

lutely, but only by way of comparison ; that is, he would 
be understood to say, that the purity and felicity of vir- 
gins is such, as that, in comparison with it, the marriage 
bed is not to be mentioned. This key is very necessary 
for discovering the sense of the ancients. 

The Fathers of the 7th council made very good use of 
this, in giving the sense of two or three passages that 
were objected against them by the Iconoclasts. 

The first passage was out of St. Chrysostom : 
" Through the Scriptures we enjoy the presence of the 
saints, having the images not of their bodies but of their 
souls : for the things there spoken by them, are the 
images of their saints :" — 'Hixeig Sta rwy ypa<pu>y rr\g rwy 
ayiuyy diroXavojjLEy Trapovaiag, ovyj. T(t)y criojjLarojy avrwy, 
dXXa rwy -^vywv' rag elxovag kypvreg* ret yap 7rap' avrcov 
elprjfJiEva rioy \\svywv avrwy eiKoreg ecftlv.* 

The second passage was out of Amphilochius : u Our 
care is, not to draw in colours on tables the natural 
faces of the saints, (for we have no need of any such 
thing) ; but rather imitate their life and conversation, 
by following the examples of their virtue :" — 'Ov yap 
TOig iriva^t ra aapKitca 7rpoo-(t)7ra riov ayitov &a ^pfjjfiarojy 
ETrtfjieXeg iijjllv ektv7tovv (otl ov ^py^ofjiEy rovrojy) aXXa rrjy 
iroXtTEiav avrojy $i apETTjg eVjtfijUfto-flcu.f 

The third passage was out of Asterius : " Draw not 
the portrait of Christ on thy garments ; but rather be- 
stow upon the poor the price that these expences would 
amount to. For as for him, it is sufficient that 
he once humbled himself, in taking upon him our flesh :" 
M77 ypacpE roy Xtorov ky ijjLariotg, aXXa jjLaWoy rrjy rioy 
ayaXaj/uLarioy rovrwy Sairayrjy TTTwyoig 7rpo(TTTopL£ov % apKEi 
yap avT(t) y /xta rrjg EyaiOjjLarcocrEOjg ruTCEiyiomg.X 

Would not any man that hears these words, believe 
these three Fathers to have been Iconoclasts ? I confess 
I cannot see what could have been said more expressly 
against images : and yet the second council of Nice 
pretendeth, that these Fathers here speak only by way 
of comparison ;§ meaning to say no more than that the 
images of Jesus Christ and of the saints are much less 



* Concil. 7, Act. 6. f Ibid. J Ibid. 

§ Concil. 7. ubi supra. 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 95 

profitable than the reading of their books, or the imita- 
tion of their lives, or than charity toward the poor. 

I know very well that it is no easy matter suitably 
to apply this answer to the words of these Fathers : 
however, we may make this use of it : that seeing that the 
council of Nice has followed this rule, it is an evident 
argument to us, that the sayings of the Fathers both may 
and ought sometimes to be taken in a quite different 
sense from what they seem to bear : so that it will 
clearly follow from hence that they are very difficult to 
be understood. 

Consider then, whether or not, among the so many 
various passages as are adduced on the one side and the 
other on the present controversies, there may not be many 
of them which are to be understood, as just observed, by 
way of comparison only ; that is to say, quite contrary to 
what they seem to say. Now, as the rhetoric used by the 
Fathers has rendered their discourses which were ad- 
dresses to the people full of obscurity 3 in like manner 
has their logic sown a thousand thorns and difficulties 
throughout their polemical writings. For many times, 
while they are in the heat of their disputations, they have 
their mind so intent upon the objects they are aiming 
at, that having regard to nothing else, they let fall such 
expressions as appear very strange, if they be con- 
sidered in reference to some other points of Christian 
religion. 

Sometimes also, whilst they use their utmost endea- 
vour to beat down one error, they seem to run into the 
contrary one : as those who would straighten a crooked 
plant, are wont to bow it as much the contrary way ; that 
so having been worked out of its former bent, it may 
at length rest in a middle posture : of which similitude 
Theodoret also makes use on this very subject : — f H G<po- 
Spa npog rovg avrnraXovg CLajjLa^rf rrjg djjLETpiag curia* rav- 
to Se tovto /cat rotg (pvTriKoixoig (j)t\oy tzoieiv* bray yap iStovi 

KEKkljXEVOV (j)VTOV, OV \XOVOV TTpOQ TOV 6pdov dvLGThXJl KCLVOVCl, 

aXXa Kai irepa rov evOeoq tig to erepov dvriickivovcri fiepog, 
Iva TK) e7tl ttXelov slg rovvavTiov e7tlk\l(T£l ttjv svdeiav 7rpav- 
fjiaTEvcrrjTai GTaviv.* 

* Theod. Dial. 3. c. 30. Sic et Bas. de Dion. Alex. ep. 41. 



96' DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

In the same manner also did Athanasius explain those 
words of Dionysius Alexandrinus, which were urged 
against him by the Arians, as seeming to tell very much 
in their favour, as we have noticed before. " He wrote 
not this (answereth Athanasius) positively, and with a 
purpose of giving an account of his belief in these 
words, but as being led on to \itter them, by the oc- 
casion and the persons he discoursed with. In like 
manner (says he) as a gardener orders the same trees in 
a different manner, according to the difference of the soil 
where they are. Neither can any blame him for lop- 
ping off some and graffing others $ for planting this, 
and plucking up that by the roots. On the con- 
trary rather, whoever knows the reason of this, will 
admire the variety and several ways of his industrious 
proceeding :" — Ov^ d-irXtog, wqttkttlv EKdefievoQ. — Kaipov, 
Kai irpocrioirov Trpotyavig eiKkvctev clvtov rotavra ypa\pai. — 
Keu yap yEcopyog riov avTiov SevSpcov dWore dWtog gVi/xe- 
\eirai, &a rr\v vjroKEifXEvrjv ttjq yrjg iroiorr}Ta' Kai ov Sia 
rovro fJL£fd\paiTO dv Tig clvtov, oti tovto jjlev rejJLvei, ekeivo 
?6 EyKEVTpl^EL, &c. a\\a Kai [jLaXkov /jlclOlov ttjv cuticlv, 

OaVfJLCKJEL TO TTOlKlXoV dvTOV TT)£ £7THJTrifir]Q* 

Afterwards Athanasius says, that Dionysius main- 
tained those positions, upon occasion of the error of 
certain bishops of Pentapolis, who maintained the opi- 
nion of Sabellius ; and that he did this by dispensation, 
as he there speaks : — Ta vttotttevQevtci rar' oiKovojAiav 
iypa-^Ev :f that is to say, not positively and simply, but 
as in reference to such a certain case only : " Now no 
man ought (says he) to wrest to the worst sense those 
things which are either said or done by dispensation ; or 
to interpret them as himself pleases :" — 'Ov hi h ra/car' 
olKovofuav ypatyofjLEva, Kai yivofjLEva ravra KaKOTp07rtog Select- 
6ai, Kai Elg idtav eXkeiv EKaGTOv fjovXrjaiv.l 

In another place Athanasius in the same manner ex- 
plains the words of the Fathers of the council of Antioch, 
who had denied the consubstantiality of the Son; shewing 
that their intention was only to overthrow a position 
which Paulus Samosatenus had laid down ; namely, that 

* Athan. Ep. de fid. Dion. Alex. 

f Athan. ibid. J Athan. ibid. 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 97 

the Father and the Son were both one and the self-same 
person, and had not any distinct subsistence. 

By this very rule also does St. Basil interpret that 
saying of Gregorius Neocaesariensis, — u That the Father 
and the Son are two, according to our apprehension 
only ; but that in hypostasis they are but one :" (Ha- 
repa mi Ytov kwivola jjlev elvat ivo, viroaraGEi he lv) ;* but 
alleging ° That he spoke this, not dogmatically, but 
only in the heat of disputation :" — Tovro Se vrt ov £oyjua- 
tiku)q elprjrai, aXV ayioviffrtKiog, kv rt] irpoc ACkiavov SiaXefci 
Ik r]%vvr)dr)aav avviltiv, &c.t 

From this it would appear that in all writings of the 
Fathers, the opinion which they oppugn is the rule and 
measure of whatsoever they are understood to affirm or 
deny. This is that which varies their sense and mean- 
ing, though oftentimes expressed in the same manner, 
and with the very same words, with that of the heretics. 
When they dispute against the Valentinians or the Ma- 
nichees, a man would then believe them to be Pelagians ; 
and so likewise when they are contesting with the Pela- 
gians, would you then imagine that they defended the 
opinions of the Manichees. If they dispute against 
Arius, you would think they favoured Sabellius : and 
again, when they oppose Sabellius, you would believe that 
they were Arians : as has been observed by the bishop 
of Bironto,J particularly in St. Augustin. 

A system like this we may every day observe in our 
preachers. When they preach against covetousness, 
they seem in a manner to cry up prodigality : and if 
they declaim against prodigality, they then seem to ap- 
prove covetousness. Thus it is also with the Protes- 
tants : when they would overthrow those empty figures, 
which are fathered by their adversaries upon those they 
call Sacramentarians, you would suppose that they 
maintained the reality of the Eucharist, as the manner 
of speaking is. And when they dispute against Tran- 
substantiation and the real presence, you would then 
swear that they defended the opinion of these very 
Sacramentarians . 



* Basil. Ep. 64. f Ibid. 

\ Corn. Mussus. Episc. Bipont. Comment, in ep. ad Rom. c. 5. 



b>S DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 

There is amongst Athanasius's works a certain very 
learned, elegant, and acute tract, wherein is debated, as 
strongly as can be, that point concerning the distinction 
of the two natures in Jesus Christ. Only read what he 
there says, in the beginning of that discourse ; and you 
will think it could not proceed from any but from Nesto- 
rius's mouth: — YIpoQ tovq Xeyovrag, lovSaiog egtiv, 6 fxrj 
bjioXoytov Oeov earavp warden.* 

Yet you will perceive plainly, by the last chapter of 
the said book, that he was not of his opinion. Now if 
by any misfortune it should so have happened that this 
last chapter had been lost, Athanasius must necessarily 
have been taken for a Nestorian, by reason of the dan- 
gerous expressions which he has there made use of, being 
urged thereto through the warmth of the dispute he 
maintained against the opinions of the Eutychians. 

For the same reason also, Julius bishop of Rome 
seems to have favoured the contrary error, namely, that 
of Eutyches, in that epistle of his cited by Gennadius ; 
which was indeed heretofore of good use, against the opi- 
nion of those men who maintained two persons in Christ j 
but which ' ' is now found to be pernicious (says he) by 
fomenting the impieties of Eutyches and Timotheus."f 
This has given occasion to some of the more modern 
authors, who have written since Gennadius's time, J to 
think that this epistle was not written by Pope Julius, but 
had been attributed to him by the false dealing of the 
heretics. 

The case was the same with these ancient Fathers, as 
it is with the pilot of a ship, who is to steer his vessel 
between two rocks, one only of which he has discovered, 
the other lying hid under water. Taking no other care 
but to avoid the danger which he sees before his eyes, 
he very easily falls into that other which he never so 
much as suspected ; so that if he split not his vessel 
upon it, and be utterly cast away, he will with difficulty 
avoid receiving injury at least. Thus these Fathers saw 
indeed the rock of Paulus Samosatanus's doctrine, and 

* T. 2. Oper. Athan. Par. impr. an. 1627. 

t Nunc autem perniciosa probatur fomentum enim est Eutychianae 
et Timotheanu? impietatis . — Gennad. in Catal. inter op. Hier. 

X Facund. Herra. defens. 3 capit. lib. 1. p. 40. quo loco vide Sir- 
raondum. 



THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 99 

that of Nestorius, but did not at all observe that of Arius, 
or of Autyches, which lay yet under water and concealed. 
Thus employing their utmost endeavours to avoid the 
danger of the two former, which they then only feared, 
they have scarcely escaped falling into, or at least 
touching very near upon the two latter, of which they 
then had no thought at all. 

Only imagine then, how warily and carefully it be- 
hoves us to walk amidst these disputes of the ancients, 
which are so beset with thorns ; and with what judg- 
ment we are to distinguish between what things are 
principal, and what but accidental only 5 between the 
cause and the means 5 and between the excess and 
defect in their expressions, and their true sense and 
meaning : and then tell me whether you think it rea- 
sonable or not, that two or three words only, which 
may perhaps accidentally have fallen from them in their 
disputations, either against the Valentinians and Mar- 
cionites, or against the Nestorians or Eutychists, should 
be taken as their definitive sentiments upon such points 
as are now controverted amongst us — whether on free- 
will, or the properties of the body of Christ, and the na- 
ture of the Eucharist. 

Before we conclude this matter, however, we should 
observe that the change of customs, both civil and 
ecclesiastical and the variation of words in their signi- 
fication, do not a little contribute to this difficulty 
of understanding the writings of the Fathers. Who 
knows not, and indeed who confesses not, both on the 
one side and on the other, that the outward face of the 
world, and even of the Church itself too, is in a manner 
wholly changed ? I speak not here of the doctrine, but 
only of the upper garment, as I may call it, and the out- 
ward part of the Church. Where is the ancient discipline ? 
W^hat is become of the rigid and severe rules of those 
ancient times ? Where are those mysterious ceremonies 
in baptism, and in the administration of the Eucharist ? 
W^here are those customs then used in the ordination of 
the clergy ? All these things are now quite forgotten 
and buried j the Church by little and little having ap- 
parelled itself in other colours and in another garb. 

The books then of the ancients being full of allusions 
f 2 



100 THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 

to these things which we are in a manner now wholly 
ignorant of, it must necessarily follow from hence, that 
it will be a difficult matter for us to guess at their mean- 
ing in any such passages. But yet there arises much 
more confusion out of the words they used ; which we 
have still retained, though in a different signification. 
We have indeed these words, Pope, Patriarch, Mais, 
Oblation, Station, Procession, Mortal Sins, Penance, Con- 
fession, Satisfaction, Merit, Indulgence, as the ancients 
had, and make use of the infinite number of the like 
terms ; but understand them all in a sense almost as far 
different from theirs, as our age is removed from theirs : 
just in like manner as of old, under the Roman Em- 
perors, the names of offices, and of things, for a long 
time continued the same that had been in use in the 
time of the old republic ; but with a sense quite diffe- 
rent from what they had formerly borne. Thus when we 
light upon any passage in the ancients, where the bishop 
of Rome is called Papa, or Pope, we immediately begin 
to fancy him with all his Pontificals about him, and all 
the glory at this day belonging to this name 5 not disal- 
lowing him so much as his guard of Switzers, and his 
light horse : whereas they that are but indifferently 
versed in these books, know that the name Papa, or 
Pope, was given to every bishop. So likewise, w T hen 
we meet with the word Exomologesis, or Confession, we 
presently fancy a man down upon his knees before his 
confessor, breathing forth all the sins he hath committed. 
The word Mass likewise makes us prick up our ears, as if, 
even from those ancient times, the whole liturgy and all 
the ceremonies used at the celebration of the Eucharist, 
had been the very same that they are at this day. 
Whereas the learned of both parties acknowledge that 
these names have, since that time, lost very much of 
their old, and acquired new significations. 

But enough, and perhaps too much, has been said, for 
elucidating the points as regards the obscurities in the 
writings of the Fathers. We may therefore come to the 
conclusion, as we stated at the commencement, that it is 
not so easy a matter, as people may imagine, to discover 
by their writings what the sense of the ancient Church 
has been, concerning the points at this day controverted 
among us. 



PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS. 101 



CHAPTER VI. 

REASON VI. THAT THE FATHERS FREQUENTLY CON- 
CEAL THEIR OWN PRIVATE OPINIONS, AND SAY WHAT 
THEY DID NOT BELIEVE ', EITHER IN REPORTING 
THE OPINION OF OTHERS, WITHOUT NAMING THEM, 
AS IN THEIR COMMENTARIES ; OR DISPUTING AGAINST 
AN ADVERSARY, WHERE THEY MAKE USE OF WHAT- 
EVER THEY ARE ABLE j OR ACCOMMODATING THEM- 
SELVES TO THEIR AUDITORY, AS MAY BE OBSERVED 
IN THEIR HOMILIES. 

The Writings of the Fathers are, for the most part, of 
three kinds, — Commentaries on the Holy Scriptures : 
Homilies delivered before the people ; and Polemical Dis- 
courses and Disputations with the Heretics. 

Now we have heretofore seen how much their rhetorical 
style has darkened and rendered their sense obscure, in 
their writings of the first and second class ; and what 
their warmth of disputation and logical wranglings have 
caused in those of the latter. Let us now see if, after 
having drawn the expressions of the Fathers out of 
these thick clouds, and attained to a clear and perfect 
understanding of the sense of them, we may be able at 
length to rest assured that we have discovered what 
their opinions have been. I confess I could heartily 
wish that it were so : but considering what they have 
themselves informed us concerning the nature and man- 
ner of their writings, I am much afraid that we neither 
may, nor indeed ought, to consider ourselves in any 
certainty, even then, when we are upon these very 
terms. 

With respect to their Commentaries, which we have 



102 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

often occasion to consult, upon sundry passages of Scrip- 
ture, on the meaning whereof we disagree among our- 
selves, hear what St. Hierome says, who was the most 
learned of all the Latins, and who yields but very little 
to any of the Greeks in these matters. 

" What (says he) is the business of a Commentary? 
It expoundeth the words of another man ; and declareth 
in plain terms the sense of things obscurely written ; it 
representeth the several opinions of others, and says — 
Some expound this passage thus 3 and others interpret 
it thus. These endeavour to prove their sense and 
meaning by such testimonies and such reasons, to the 
end that the intelligent reader, having several exposi- 
tions before him, and reading the judgments of divers 
men, some bringing what he may, and other perhaps 
what he cannot admit of 5 he may judge which among 
the rest is the truest ; and like a wise banker may 
refuse all adulterated coin. Now I would ask whether 
he ought to be accounted guilty of diversity in his inter- 
pretations, or of contradiction in the senses given, who 
in one and the same commentary shall deliver the expo- 
sitions of divers persons >"* And so on, as it there 
followeth in the place afore cited. He speaketh like- 
wise to the same sense in various other places through- 
out his works : " This i^says he) is the usual manner 
of commentaries, and the rule that commentators go 
by; to set down in their expositions the several opinions 
they have met with ; and to deliver, both what their 
own and what the judgment of others is upon the passage. 
And this is the practice not only of the interpreters of 
the Scriptures, but of the expositors also of all kinds of 

* Coramentarii quid operis habent ? Alterius dicta edisserunt ; 
quae obscure scripts sunt, piano sermone manifestant, multorum sen- 
tentiaa replicant, et dicunt : Hunc locum quidam sic edisserunt ; alii 
sic interpretantur ; illi sensum suum et intelligentiani his testimo- 
niis, et hac nituntur ratione nrmare ; ut prudens Lector cum diversas 
cxplanationes legerit, et multorum vel probanda vel improbanda didi- 
cerit, judicet quid verius sit, et quasi bonus Trapezita adulterinae 
monetae pecuniam reprobet. Num diversae interpretationis, et con • 
trariorum inter se sensuum tenebitur reus, qui in uno opere quod edis- 
serrt expositiones posuerit plurimorum — Hicr. ep. ad Pammach. et 
Much. ApoU ad vers. Ruff'. 



FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 103 

secular learning, as well in the Greek as in the Latin 
tongue."* 

Now I must needs say, that this seems to be a very 
strange way of commenting. For what light, or what 
certainty can a reader be able to gather out of such a 
rhapsody of different opinions, jumbled together in a 
heap, without so much as intimating either which is 
good or bad ; or probable or necessary ; or to the pur- 
pose or not ? But seeing that it has pleased St. 
Hierome to follow this course, whatsoever his reason 
be, you see plainly that we are not to take as his what- 
soever he has delivered in his commentaries. And 
seeing also that he speaks in general terms, as he doth, of 
the nature and manner of a commentary j we are not 
to doubt, but that the rest of the Fathers have chiefly 
been of the same judgment ; and that consequently they 
took the same course in those expositions which we 
have of theirs. So that it will hence follow, that not- 
withstanding that we should chance to find in these kind 
of writings of theirs, an opinion, or an interpretation, 
clearly delivered j yet may we not from thence conclude 
that this was the author's own opinion : for perhaps he 
only delivered it as the opinion of some other man. 

Now if the Fathers had been but careful to have 
taken in water out of wholesome fountains only, filling 
up their commentaries with no other opinions or inter- 
pretations, except only those of persons of known piety, 
faith, and learning, this mixture would have proved the 
less dangerous. For, notwithstanding that we should 
often be at a stand, and doubt whether that which we 
there find be the true sense and opinion of the Father 
whose name it bears ; yet we might still rest assured, 
that though it should not perhaps be his, it must cer- 
tainly be the opinion of some other good author, if not 
of equal yet of little less authority than he. But the 
mischief of it is, that they took a quite contrary course, 
many times filling their commentaries with very strange, 

* Hie est commentariorum mos, et explanantium regula, ut opi- 
niones in expositione varias persequantur, et quid vel sibi vel aliis 
videatur edisserant. Et hoc non solum sanctarum interpretes scrip- 
turarum, sed ssecularium quoque literarum explanatores faciunt, tam 
Latinae linguae quam Graecae. — Hier.ep. ad Pammach, et Apol. advers. 



104 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

senseless expositions, and sometimes too with dangerous 
ones, and such as were taken out of very suspected 
authors, and which had no very good name in the 
Church. 

St. Hierome tells us often,* (and who ever shall but 
diligently and attentively read him, may easily observe 
as much,) that his commentaries, (which make the 
greatest and most considerable part of his works,) are 
interwoven throughout with expositions taken out of 
Origen, Didymus, Apollinaris, and others, who were at 
that time ill-spoken of, as men who too presumptuously 
foisted upon the world their own private opinions, 
" Fashioning the mysteries of the Church out of their 
own private fancies :"f as St.* Hierome himself some- 
times said of Origen. 

Now this is strange to me : for no man is more 
strenuous in crying down these authors than he ; being 
indeed one of the principal heads of that holy league of 
Theophilus and Epiphanius, against Origen and his 
party. No man ever reproved any one so sharply as he 
hath done Ruffinus, for offering to present to the view 
of the Latins the poisonous doctrines of Origen in those 
books of his which he had translated; and in the mean 
time he himself crams his own commentaries with the 
same ; many times without using any preparation at all 
about them, or furnishing his reader with any counter- 
poison, in case he meets with any of them. J So like- 
wise, in his commentaries upon the Prophets, he ever 
and anon briugeth in diverse expositions out of the Jews 
themselves : insomuch that, when you think you are 
reading and searching after the opinion and sense of 
St. Hierome upon such or such a passage, you often 
read that of a heretic, or of a Jew. 

If the Fathers would but have taken the pains to have 
given us notice every time who the author was, whose 
opinion they adduced, this manner of commenting upon 
the Scriptures would have been much more beneficial 

* Hier. pracfat. in Comment, in ep. ad Galat. et Apol. 2. adv. Ruff, 
et. ep. 89. ad. August, et alibi saepe. 

(• Ingenium suum facit Ecclesiae sacramenta. — Hier. Comment. 5. 
n Es. prrcf. de Origine* 

J Vid. C omment. in Nahum. 



FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 105 

unto us, and less troublesome. For the name would 
have been useful in directing us what account we 
were to make of such opinions and expositions. But 
this they do but very seldom, as you may observe out 
of the expositions of St. Hilary, St. Ambrose, and others ; 
who, robbing poor Origen without any mercy, do not 
yet do him the honour so much as scarcely to name 
him.* This is certain, that you shall find in St. Am- 
brose many times whole periods and whole pages too, 
taken out of St. Basil ; but, unless my memory fail me, 
you shall never find him once named there. 

These men deliver you the opinions and words of 
other men, just as if they were their own ; and yet will 
not be bound to warrant them us for good and sound. 
St. Hierome, in his Commentary upon the Epistle to the 
Galatians, expounds that passage where there is mention 
made of St. Paul reproving St. Peter by way of dispen- 
sation 3 telling us that St. Paul did not reprehend him, 
as if he had indeed accounted him blame-worthy ; but 
only for the better edification, and bringing in of the 
Gentiles, by this seeming reprehension of his ; who did 
but act this part with St. Peter, " To the end (says he) 
that the hypocrisy, or false shew of observing the Law, 
which offended those among the Gentiles who had 
believed, might be corrected by the hypocrisy or false 
shew of reprehension 3 and that by this means both the 
one and the other might be saved : whilst the one, who 
stood up for circumcision, followed St. Peter ; and those 
others, who refused circumcision, applaud, and are taken 
with St. Paul's liberty."! 

St. Augustin, utterly disliking this exposition of 
St. Hierome, wrote unto him in his ordinary grave and 
meek way ; modestly declaring the reasons why he 
could not assent to it ; which epistles of his are yet 
extant. The other answers him with a thousand strange 

* Vid Hieron. Apol. adv. Ruff, ad Pammach. et Marcel, et Ep. 
141. ad Marcel. 

t Ut hypocrisis observandae Legis, quae nocebat iis qui ex gentibus 
crediderant, correptionis hypocrisi emendaretur, et uterque populus 
salvus fieret ; dum et qui circumcisionem laudant, Petrum sequuntur 
et qui circumcidi nolunt, Pauli prsedicant libertatem. — Id* Comment. 
in ep. ad Galat. 

F 5 



106 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

things 5 but particularly he there protests, that he will 
not warrant for sound whatever shall be found in that 
book of his :* and to shew that he does not do this 
without good reason, he sets down a certain passage 
out of his preface to it, which is very well worth our 
consideration. For after he has named the writings of 
Origen, Didymus, Apollinaris, Theodorus, Heraclas, 
Eusebius Emissenus, Alexander the heretic, and others, 
he adds; " That I may therefore plainly tell the truth, 
I confess that I have read all these authors j and collect- 
ing together as much as I could in my memory, I 
presently called for a scribe ; to whom I dictated either 
my own conceptions, or those of other men, without 
remembering either the order, or the words sometimes, 
or the sense. "f Do but reflect now, whether or not 
this be not an excellent rare way of commenting upon 
the Scriptures, and very well worthy to be esteemed 
and imitated by us ! He then turns his address to St. 
Augustin, saying, " If therefore thou lightest upon any 
thing in my expositions which was worthy of reprehen- 
sion, it would have stood better with thy learning to 
have consulted the Greek authors themselves ; and to 
have seen, whether what I have written be found 
in thern or not ; and if not, then to have condemned 
it as my own private opinion. "J 

Hierome elsewhere gives the same answer to Ruffinus, 
who upbraids him for some absurd passages in his 
Commentaries upon the Prophet Daniel. § 

Now, according to this reasoning, if we would know 
whether or not what we meet with in Hierome's com- 
mentaries, be his own proper sense or not j we must 
first turn over the books of all these ancient Greeks ; 
that is to say, we must do that which is now impossible 
to be done, seeing that the writings of the greatest part 



* Hieron. ep. ad August, quae est 89. 

t Itaque ut simpliciter fatear, legi htec omnia, et in mente mea 
plurima coacervans, accito notario, vel mea vel aliena dictavi, nee 
ordinis, nee verborum interdum, nee sensuum memor. — Hier. ibid, 

\ Si quid i^itur reprehensione dignum putaveras in explanatione 
nostra, eruditionis tiue fuerat qaerere, &c. — Id* ibid. Vide et Jpol. 
contra Jiuf]\ 

§ Id. Apol. 2. adv. Ruff. 



FREQUENLTY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 107 

of them are utterly lost, and must not attribute any- 
thing to him, as his proper opinion, how clearly and 
expressly soever it be delivered, unless we are first able 
to make it appear, that it is not to be found in any of 
those authors, out of whose writings he has patched up 
his commentaries. For if any one of them be found to 
have delivered anything you here meet with ; you are 
to take notice that it belongs to that author : St. Hie- 
rome in this case having been only his transcriber, or at 
most but his translator. So that you may be able 
perhaps, by the reading of books in this manner collect- 
ed, to judge whether the Fathers have had the skill to 
make a clever and artificial connexion and digestion of 
those things which they gleaned out of so many several 
authors or not. Whether or not they believed all that 
they have set down in their books, you will be no more 
able to discover, than you can judge what belief any 
man is of by the books he transcribes ; or can guess at 
the opinions of an interpreter by the books he translates, 
Whence we may conclude, that testimonies brought out 
of such books as these are of little or no force at all, 
either for or against us. 

This seems to have been the opinion of cardinal Bel- 
larmine, where to a certain objection brought out of one 
of St. Hierome's books, he makes this answer : i( That 
the author in that place speaks according to the opinion 
of others ; as he often does in his commentaries upon 
the Epistle to the Ephesians, and in other places. 
The like course has cardinal Perron taken, where the 
Protestants have urged against the Church of Rome 
the authority of St, Hilary, on the canon of the Scrip- 
tures of the Old Testament ; confidently answering that 
the notes cited out of that place of St. Hilary are not 
his, but Origen's, in his commentary upon the first 
Psalm ; part of whose words he had transcribed and 
inserted in his own prologue upon the Psalms ; and 
yet St. Hilary neither so much as names Origen, nor yet 
gives us any intimation at all, whether we are to receive 
what is there spoken concerning the Scriptures, as from 
Origen or from himself. The ground of this answer of 
his is taken from what St. Hierome has testified in 
various places 5 namely, that St. Hilary has transcribed 



103 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

the greatest part of his commentaries out of the said 
Origen. 

Now if we but rightly consider the account which St. 
Hierome has given, as we shewed before, of all com- 
mentaries in general, how can we have any assurance 
whether that which the Fathers deliver in this kind of 
writings, be their own real opinion, or only some other 
man's transcribed ? and if we can have no assurance 
hereof, how can we then consider them of any force at 
all either for or against us ? for it is most evident, that 
this method which the Fathers have observed in their 
expositions of the Scriptures, must render the things 
themselves very doubtful, however clearly and expressly 
they have delivered themselves. 

But has it not behoved them to be more careful in 
their Homilies, or Sermons ; and to deliver nothing there 
but what has been their own proper opinion and belief? 
May we not, at least in this particular, rest assured that 
they have spoken nothing but from their very soul; 
and that their tongues have expressed here their own opi- 
nions only, and not those of other men ? Certainly, in 
all reason, they should not have uttered anything in 
the sacred place from whence they taught their people, 
but what they conceived to have been most true. Yet 
besides what we have heretofore noticed as to this par- 
ticular, (namely, that they did not always speak out 
the whole truth, but concealed something of it, as not so 
fit for the ears either of the Pagans or of the weaker 
sort of Christians), cardinal Perron, that great and cu- 
rious inquirer into all the customs of the ancients, has 
informed us that, in regard to the aforesaid considera- 
tions, they have sometimes gone yet further.* For, in 
expounding the Scriptures to the people, where the 
Catechumeni were present, if by chance they fell upon 
any passage where the Sacraments were spoken of, that 
they might not discover these mysteries, they would then 
make bold to wrest the text a little, and instead of giving 
them the true and real interpretation of the place which 
they themselves knew to be such, they would only pre- 

* Perron, of the Eucliar. 1. 1,'c. 10. Aut. 24, ch. 15, et passim 
locis infra citandis. 



FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 109 

sent their auditory with an allegorical and symbolical, 
and (as this cardinal says) an accidental and collateral 
one 5 only to give them some kind of small satisfaction ; 
inasmuch as, if in such cases they should have been 
utterly silent, it would questionless have much amazed 
their auditors, and in some degree also have scandalized 
and given them offence. 

To satisfy therefore their expectation, and yet to keep 
these mysteries still concealed from them, they eva- 
sively waived the business, laying before them that 
which they accounted not the best and truest, but the 
fittest for their purpose and design. Thus do we 
sometimes please little children with an apple, or 
some little toy, to take them off the desire they have for 
something of greater value. Those therefore who take 
all that the Fathers deliver in the like places for good 
and solid expositions, and such as they themselves real- 
ly believed, very much deceive themselves ; and believ- 
ing they have a solid body in their arms, embrace only 
an empty shadow. 

Now we should hardly believe those holy men to have 
been guilty of any such juggling as this, had we not the 
word of so eminent a cardinal for our belief ; upon whose 
authority we have, for this once, adventured to propose 
it to the reader's consideration, and shall withal produce 
some few examples taken out of the same author. 

St. Augustin, being to expound the sixth chapter of 
the Gospel of St. John, (where, as he conceives, our 
Saviour Christ is very copious in his discourse concern- 
ing the Eucharist,) presently begins to obumbrate 
and disguise the mystery with such a number of alle- 
gories, riddles, and ambiguities, as that, if you dare 
believe the cardinal, throughout the whole 26th tract 
there is not one period but has in it some elusion, diver- 
sion, or diminution of the true and solid definition of 
this article. Thus does he interpret the bread which 
came down from heaven to be the gift of the Holy 
Ghost : " Our Saviour (says he) purposing to send down 
the Holy Gost, saith that, It is the bread which descended 
from heaven/'* 

* Perron. Tract.de S. August, c. 12, et lib. 2, de Euch. Aut. 22 5 c. 1. 



110 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

You may, if you please, believe, upon the faith of this 
Father, that this is the true sense and meaning of the 
passage. But yet the cardinal makes it appear, out of 
Calvin, that it cannot be so. He likewise contradicts, 
after the same manner, that which the same Father says 
a little after ; to wit, that the purpose of our Saviour 
was to let us understand that this meat and drink, 
whereof he speaks in St. John, is the communion and 
fellowship, that is between his body and his members, 
who are the holy Church, in his faithful servants, pre- 
destinated, called, justified, and glorified. 

Had not the cardinal given us this information, who 
would ever have imagined that this author (who was 
so conscientious as to make it a great quarrel with St. 
Hierome, only for having laid dissimulation to St. Paul's 
charge,) should here himself say that our Saviour Christ 
would have us to understand his words thus, unless he 
himself really believed this to be the true sense and 
meaning of them ? The cardinal also applies this very 
consideration to the greatest portion of those other pas- 
sages, cited out of this Father by the Protestants ; 
namely, " to believe in Christ is to eat the Bread of 
Life;" and to this other; "He that believeth in him 
eateth of it ; and he is invisibly fed by it, because that 
he is also invisibly born again:" and to this also 5 
" Whosoever eateth of this bread, he shall never die ; but 
this is to be understood of him that eateth of it, accord- 
ing to the virtue of the sacrament ; and not according 
to the visible sacrament -, of him that eateth of it inter- 
nally, and not externally ; of him that eateth of it with 
his heart, and not of him that cheweth it with his 
teeth." 

In all these places the cardinal pretendeth that St. 
Augustin suppresses the true, full, and solid definition 
of this manducation, or eating of the flesh, and drinking 
the blood of Christ ; and instead thereof presents this 
allegorical and accidental meditation to the catechumeni, 
only to casta mist, as it were, before their eyes, and to elude 
their curiosity. * He makes use of the same course also 
in answering those passages which are quoted by the 

* Perron. Tract, de Euch. 1. 2, Aut. 2i, c. 15. 



FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. Ill 

Protestants from Theodoret, and Gregory Nazianzen 5* 
who, he says, called the Eucharist " the antitype of the 
body and blood of Christ, "f in the same manner as 
Abraham, being among infidels, called Sarah his sister ; 
concealing something of what was true, but yet affirm- 
ing nothing that was false. He likewise explains after 
the same manner this passage, out of the Pcedagogus of 
Clemens Alexandrinus ; "The flesh and the blood of 
Christ is faith and the promise. "J In a word, he is 
so much pleased with this observation, that he adopts 
it at every turn : and indeed we may very well say, 
that this is his main treasury, out of which he produces 
the greatest part of those subtile and so much admired 
solutions he gives to the passages objected against them 
out of the Fathers. § 

Those who are disposed to examine these passages of 
his, may probably find something to retort upon him, 
in some of those applications he has there made. It is 
enough for our present purpose, that he admits that the 
Fathers, in their sermons and discourses made to the 
people, have often made use of this species of art $ 
from which it clearly follows, that we cannot then pos- 
sibly have any assurance that they themselves accounted, 
as solid and full, such expositions and opinions as they 
have delivered in these writings of theirs. 

As the cardinal endeavours by this means to weaken 
the force of those passages of St. Augustin, Gregory 
Nazianzen, Theodoret, and Clemens Alexandrinus, may 
not the Protestants, when any passages are brought 
against them out of the homilies of St. Chrysostom, or 
Eucherius, which seem to tell strongly against their 
opinions, be allowed to have the same liberty, and to 
answer, that these Fathers, speaking before the people, 
made use of this dispensation, speaking that which they 
thought to be, not the best and truest, but the most 
proper for the edification of others ? and that they had 

* Perron, de Euch. 1. 2, Aut. IS, c. 5. f Id. ibid. 

I Perron, de Euch. 1. 2, Aut. 5. 

§ Id. de Euch. pages 52, 329, 332, 339, 344, 356, 417, 420, 434, 
501, 503, 508, 510, 5i6 ; et Tiac. de S. August, pp. 55, 57, 95, 145, 
191. 



112 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

an apprehension that a bare and downright expression 
of the truth might possibly have abated the warmth of 
the people's devotion? there being apparently (say they) 
more cause to doubt, that the people might disesteem 
and slight the sacrament, than to fear lest they should 
adore it : indeed the Fathers are much more careful in 
concealing the matter of the sacrament, the outward 
appearance whereof is apt to make it disesteemed, than 
they are in concealing the form, which is of so venerable 
a nature ; saying often, and in express terms, that it is 
" the body of Christ;" but ordinarily forbearing to say 
that it is, or that it was, " a piece of bread." 

We now enter upon the third class of the writings of 
the ancients, wherein the Fathers dispute against the 
adversaries of their faith $ namely, the Pagans, Jews, 
and Heretics. 

We have heretofore observed how much obscurity the 
earnestness and warmth of spirit have caused in the 
expressions of the Fathers : and this defect arises from 
mere feeling ; and not from any design or purpose that 
they had of speaking thus rather than otherwise. For 
seeing that all kind of empassioned feeling disturbs, and 
in some measure confounds,, the judgment -, and seeing it 
is difficult for a man, however holy he be, to go through 
a disputation, without some alteration in his temper ; 
especially if it be of any importance, as all those on 
religion are, we are not to wonder, if in these cases we 
sometimes find the language of the Fathers somewhat 
confused, and appearing of several colours ; just as pas- 
sion usually tinges both the countenance and language 
of those it takes possession of. 

Besides the confusion which is caused merely by the 
agitation of the spirits, without the Fathers so much as 
thinking of it, we are here further to take notice, that 
the proper design and the law of the method observed 
in. disputations, is the cause of our encountering with 
so many and great difficulties. For their opinion was, 
that in this kind of writing it was lawful for them to say 
and make use of anything that might advance their 
cause, although it were otherwise but light and trivial, 
or perhaps also contrary to what themselves believed 5 



FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 113 

and so, on the other side, to conceal and reject what- 
soever might prejudice their cause, though otherwise 
true and allowable. 

Now that this observation may not seem strangs and 
incredible, as coming out of my mouth, let us hear 
what the Fathers themselves say in this particular. And 
first let us hear St. Hierome, who was the greatest cri- 
tic of them all -, and who, by often exercising the strength 
of his admirable wit, both by himself and with others, 
has observed more respecting the style, method, natu- 
ral disposition, and opinions of the Fathers, than any 
other. 

"We have learned together, (says he, writing to Pam- 
machius), that there are divers sorts of discourse ; and 
among the rest, that it is one thing to write yviivavTUcuQ 
(by way of disputation), and another thing to write Soy- 
fiariKojc (by way of instruction). In the former of these 
the disputes are free and discursive ; where, in answer- 
ing an adversary, and proposing one time one thing, 
and another time another, a man argueth as he pleaseth ; 
speaking one thing and doing another ; shewing bread 
(as it is in the proverb), and holding a stone in his hand. 
Whereas in the second kind, an open front, and, if I may 
so speak, ingenuousness are required. It is one thing 
to make inquiries, and another to define : in the one 
we must fight, in the other we must teach. Thou seest 
me in a combat, and in peril of my life j and dost thou 
come with thy grave instructions like some reverend 
schoolmaster ? Do not wound me by stealth, and from 
whence I least expected it. Let thy sword strike directly 
at me : it is a shame for thee to wound thy enemy by 
guile, and not by strength : as if it were not a piece of 
the greatest mastery in fighting to threaten one part, 
but hit another. I beseech you read Demosthenes, 
read Tully : and lest perhaps you should refuse orators 
whose profession it is to propose things rather probable 
than true, read Plato, Theophrastus, Xenophon, Aris- 
totle, and others ; who, springing all from Socrates' 
fountain, as so many different rivulets, ran several ways : 
What can you find in them that is clear and open ? 
what word in them but hath its design ? and what de- 
sign, but of victory only ? Origen, Methodius, Eusebius, 



114 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

Apollinaris, have written largely against Celsus arid 
Porphyry. Only observe what manner of arguments, 
and what slippery problems, they made use of, for sub- 
verting those works which had been wrought by the 
spirit of the devil : and how on being sometimes forced 
to speak, they alleged against the Gentiles, not that 
which they believed, but that which was most necessary 
to be said. I shall not here speak anything of the 
Latin writers, as Tertullian, Cyprian, Minucius, Victo- 
rinus, Lactantius, and Hilary, lest I might seem rather 
to accuse others, than to defend myself."* 

Thus St. Hierome. As for that which he afterwards 
adds, respecting St. Paul, whom he believeth to have 
practised the very same arts, this is no proper place to 
examine either the truth or the use of this opinion of 
his ; as our purpose is here to treat of the Fathers only. 
Now you see that he testifieth clearly, that they were 
wont, in their disputations, sometimes to say one thing, 
and believe another ; to shew us bread, and keep a stone 
in their hand ; to threaten one part, and to hit another ; 
and that they were sometimes constrained to fit their 
words, not to their own proper thoughts, but to the 

* Simul didicimus plura esse videlicet genera dicendi, et inter 
caetera aliud esse yvjuvaa-nxwg scribere, aliud Soy^a-nxw? . In priori 
vagam esse disputationem, et adversario respondentem nunc haec, 
nunc ilia preponere, argumentari ut libet, aliud loqui, aliud agere, 
panem (ut dicitur) ostendere, lapidem tenere. In sequenti autem 
aperta frons, et, ut ita dicam, ingenuitas necessaria est. Aliud est 
quaerere, aliud definire : in altero pugnandum, in altero docendum 
est. Tu me stantem in praelio, et de vita periclitantem, studiosus 
magister doceas ? Noli ex obliquo, et unde non putaris, vulnus 
inferre. Directo percute gladio. Turpe tibi est hostem dolis ferire, 
non viribus. Quasi non et haec ars summa pugnantiiun fit, alibi 
minari, alibi percutere. Legite obsecro vos Deraosthenem, legite 
Tullium : ac ne forsitan rhetores vobis displiceant, quorum artis 
est vcrisimilia magis quam vera dicere, legite Platonem, Theophras- 
tum, Xenophontem, Aristotelem, et reliquos qui de Socratis fonte 
manantes diversis cucurrere rivulis ; quid in illis apertum, quid 
simplex est? qua* verba non sensuum ? qui sensus non victoria? ? 
Considerate quibus argumentis, et quam lubricis problematibus dia- 
boli spiritu contexta subvertant ; et quia interdum coguntur loqui, 
non quod feriunt, sed quod necesse est, dicunt adversus ea quae di- 
cunt Gentiles. Taceo de Latinis scriptoribus, jTertulliano, Cypriano, 
Minucio, Yirtorino, Lactancio, Hilario, ne non tarn me defendisse, 
quam alios videar accusasse. 






FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 115 

present necessity. The very same thing is confessed 
also by Athanasius, speaking of Dionysius Alexandri- 
nus,* as noticed before : namely, that he wrote, not 
simply and plainly, as giving us an account of his own 
belief, but that he was moved, and as it were forced, to 
speak as he did, by reason of the occasion, and of the 
person he disputed against. 

The same account does St. Basil give of a certain 
passage of Gregorius Neocassariensis :f answering for 
him with this distinction ; " That he spake not in that 
place dogmatically, but only by way of economy or dispen- 
sation :" Ta kclt oiKorofiiav ypatyofieva.X By this term is 
meant, that a man keeps to himself what he believes, 
and proposes some other thing lying wide of his own 
opinion, either this way or that way; being induced so 
to do from some particular considerations. 

As we sometimes see that the water ascendeth, being 
forced to mount up to fill some space, which otherwise 
would remain void, — you will not, I hope, conclude 
from hence, that this is its natural and ordinary 
motion, — in like manner was it with the Fathers -, who, 
being sometimes harassed and hard driven to it in dis- 
putation, in order to avoid, so to speak, some certain 
vacuum which they were afraid of, they sometimes left 
their natural motion, and their proper sense and opinion, 
and took up some other contrary one, according to the 
necessity of the occasion. Indeed, though St.Hierome 
had not noticed it, the fact would evidently enough have 
appeared from their writings. Otherwise, how could 
any one possibly have believed that they could have 
spoken so contrary as they have done in many particu- 
lars, blowing hot and cold with one and the same 
mouth? How could they possibly have delivered so 
many things contrary either to reason, or to the Scrip- 
tures, or to the Fathers? " For, (as the same St. 
Hierome says) who is so very a blockhead, and so igno- 
rant in the art of writing, as to praise and condemn one 
and the same thing 5 pull down what he hath built ; 

* Athan. ep. de fide Dion. Alex. f Basil, snp. c. 5. 

X Athan. ep. de fide Dion. Alex. 



116 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 






and build what he had pulled down?"* Now the 
Fathers are often observed to have done this very 
thing. We are therefore to conclude, that they have 
been forced to it, out of some special design; and that 
they did it, as they used to speak, by economy, or parti- 
cular dispensation ; seeing that it is evident that the 
greatest part of them were very able men. 

St. Hierome by name, recommending the going in 
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, went thus far as to say, " That 
it was a part of our faith to go and worship in those 
places where the feet of our Saviour once stood, and to 
have a sight of the tracts, which at this day continue 
fresh, both of his nativity, cross, and passion." t Now 
how does this agree with that long discourse which he 
has made in another place, to a quite contrary sense ? 
namely, in his Epistle to Paulinus, where at last 
concluding, he gives him this reason of the length of 
his discourse : " To the end (says he) that thou mayest 
not think that any thing is wanting to the completing 
of thy faith, because thou hast not visited Jerusalem ; 
or that we are any whit the better for having the oppor- 
tunity of dwelling in this place. "J And here he con- 
curs with Gregory Nyssen, who hath written a discourse 
expressly against the opinion of those " who account it 
to be one of the parts of piety to have visited Jerusa- 
lem :" — Repi tiov airrovTiov eIq 'lEpoaoXv/jia., &c. oIq ev jiEpti 
EVGE^Eiag vEvofxicrrat to tovq ev 'lEpoaoXvfiOLQ tottovq ISeiv.§ 

Let any rational man therefore now judge, whether or 
not this course must not necessarily embroil and en- 
shroud in almost inexplicable difficulties the writings of 
the Fathers. For how is it possible that we should be 
able to judge when they speak as they thought, and when 
not? whether they mean really what they say, or 

* Quis enim tam hebes, et sic inscribendo rudis est, ut idem 
laudet et damnet ? aedificata destruat, et destructa aedificet. — Hier. 
ep. 50, ad Pam. 

f Certe adorasse ubi steterunt pedes Domini, pars fidei est. &c. 
— Hier. cp. ad Desider. qucc est 144. 

\ Quorsum (inquies) hsec tam longo repetita principio ? Videlicet 
ne quidquam fidei tuae deesse putes, quia Hierosolymam non vidisti, 
nee nos idcirco meliores existimes quod hujus loci habitaculo frui- 
mur. — Id. ep. 13, ad Paulin. 

§ Greg. Nyss. in Ep. 



FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 117 

whether they make but a flourish only ? whether the 
bread which they shew us be to deceive or to feed us ? 
whether the problems they propose be solid or slippery 
ones ? whether their positions be dogmatical, or econo- 
mical ? Certainly, if our Court judgments were framed 
after this manner, we should never hope to have an end 
in any suit of law. As for that which St. Hierome 
says, iC That an intelligent and favourable reader ought 
to judge of those things which seem inexplicable from 
the rest of the discourse, and not immediately to con- 
demn an author for having delivered, in one and the 
same book, two contrary opinions."* I confess that this 
is very true ; but yet it does not remove the difficulty. 
For however intelligent and discerning a man the reader 
may be, it will very often be impossible for him to form 
a right judgment in this particular : as for example, 
when those other things are wanting, which St. Hierome 
would have a man to make the measure of his judgment; 
or when any one brings us no more of an author than 
a bare sentence, — the chapter and book where these 
words are, which need be explained, being quite out of 
his memory. How many such are adduced every day 
in our disputations ? What can we now do, or which 
way shall we turn ourselves, if meeting with a passage 
from any of the Fathers that needs to be explained, we 
can find no other place in him on the same point ; 
or if there be none found but what is as doubtful as the 
other, or that is not controverted in some other book ? 
Who shall regulate us amidst such contradictions as 
these ? But, which is yet worse, those things which 
St. Hierome prescribeth us for a rule and direction to 
our judgment, are now in these days of ours very un- 
seasonable ; as being harsh as to the one side, and 
pleasing to the other,, according to men's several affec- 
tions and interest, agreeably to which they are wont to 
interpret and judge of the Fathers, whereas we should 
rather search in them which way we are to direct our 
judgments. And that favourableness which St. Hierome 



* Debuerat prudens et benignus lector etiam ea quae videntur 
dura estimare de cseteris, et non in uno atque eodem libro criminari 
me diversas sententias protulisse. — Hier. ep. 50. ad Pam. 



IIS OPINTONS OF THE FATHERS. 

requireth in us cannot be here of any use, but may 
possibly besides do very much harm. For the greater 
the regard we bare to any Father, the greater care and 
pains shall we take in vindicating his words, and inter- 
preting them in a sense as far different as we can from 
what we have long since condemned as erroneous and 
unsound ; though possibly this may have been his real 
sense and opinion. As for example, in those passages 
before cited out of St. Hierome and Gregory Nyssen, 
the Protestant accounts that a very harsh piece of 
doctrine, which however his adversary is well pleased 
with : the one labours to explain what appears very 
easy to the other : the one takes that for text, which the 
other accounts but as a gloss. And thus the greater 
affection men bear to the name and authority of any one 
of the Fathers, the more do they labour and use their 
utmost endeavours to bring him over to speak to their 
opinion ; that is to say, in plain truth, to force him out 
of his own : it being impossible that he should hold 
both opinions at once. 

We shall here therefore conclude, that however clear 
and express the words of the Fathers may be, yet never- 
theless will it often happen, that we cannot have any 
assurance that we have their sense expressed in them ; 
whether it be, in their Expositions of the Scriptures ; 
or in their Homilies and Sermons before the people ; or 
lastly, in their Disputations with their adversaries re- 
garding their Faith. 



THL DOCTRINES OF THE FATHERS. 119 



CHAPTER VII. 

REASON VII. THAT THE FATHERS HAVE NOT ALWAYS 

HELD THE SAME DOCTRINE 5 BUT HAVE CHANGED 
SOME OF THEIR OPINIONS, ACCORDING AS THEIR 
JUDGMENT HAS BECOME MATURED BY STUDY OR 
AGE. 

Amongst all the Ecclesiastical writers, those of the Old 
and New Testament only have received the knowledge 
of Divine things by an extraordinary inspiration. The 
rest have acquired their knowledge by the ordinary 
means of instruction, reading, and meditation ; so that 
this knowledge came not unto them in an instant, as it 
did to the others, but increased by degrees, ripening 
by little and little in proportion as they grew in years : 
whence it is, that their writings are not all of the same 
weight, or of the same value. For who sees not, that 
what they, as it were, sportingly w r rote in their younger 
years, is of much less consideration than those other 
productions which they wrote in their mature age ? 
Who, for instance, would equal the authority of that 
epistle of St. Hierome to Heliodorus* (written by him 
when he had but newly left the schools of Rhetoric, 
being yet a child, and full of that innocent and incon- 
siderate heat which usually accompanies those years,) to 
that of those other graver pieces w 7 hich he afterwards 
gave to the Church, when he had arrived at his full 
strength and ripeness of mind, and to the perfection of 
his studies ? 

St. Augustin has left us a remarkable testimony, 
that the Fathers profited by age and study in the know- 
ledge of the truth, when, as in his old age, taking pen in 
hand, he reviewed and corrected all that he had ever 

* Hier. ep. 1. ad Heliodor. Vid. ep. 2, ad Nepot. 



120 THE DOCTRINES OF THE FATHERS 

written during his whole life ; faithfully and ingenuously- 
noting whatsoever he thought worthy of reprehension, 
and giving us all his animadversions collected together 
in the Books of his Retractations, which in my judgment 
is the most glorious and most excellent of all those 
many monuments which he hath left to posterity 5 
whether you consider the learning, or the modesty and 
sincerity of the man. 

St. Hierome reporteth that Origen also, long before, 
had in his old age written g an epistle to Fabianus bishop 
of Rome, wherein he confesses that he repented of many 
things which he had taught and written.* Neither is 
there any doubt but that some similar thing may have 
happened to most of the other Fathers, and that they 
may have disallowed of that which they had formerly 
believed as true. 

Now from this consideration there arises a new 
difficulty, which we are to grapple with in this our 
inquiry into the true and genuine sense of the Fathers 
respecting our present controversies. For, seeing that 
the condition and nature of their writings are such, it is 
most evident that when we would make use of any of 
their opinions, it will concern us to be very well assured 
that they have not only sometimes either held or written 
the same, but that they have moreover persevered in 
them to the end. Whence Vincentius Lirinensisf in 
that passage of his which is so often urged, for making 
use of the ancient authors in deciding our present con- 
troversies, thinks it not fit that we should be bound to 
receive whatsoever they have said, for certain and un- 
doubted truth, unless they have assured and confirmed 
it unto us by their perseverance in the same. Cardinal 
Perron also evidently shews us the same way, by his 
own practice : for, disputing about the Canon of the 
Holy Scriptures, (which he pretends to have been 
always the very same in the Western Church, w T ith that 
which is delivered unto us by the Third Council of Car- 

* Ipse Origenes in Epistola quam scribit ad Fabianum, Romanse 
urbis Episcopum, poenitentiam agit cur talia scripserit, &c. — Hier» 
ep. 65, Ue Erroribus Origenii 

t Vincent. Lirinens. lib. adv. prof. Novit. seu Common. 



HAVE SOMETIMES CHANGED. 121 

thage, where the Maccabees are reckoned in among the 
rest), and finding himself hardly pressed by some cer- 
tain passages alleged by the Protestants out of St. 
Hierome to the contrary, he answereth the objection, 
by saying, among other things, that this Father, when 
he wrote the said passages, was not yet come to the 
ripeness of his judgment, and perfection of his studies ;* 
whereas afterwards, when he was now more fully 
instructed in the truth of the sense of the Church, he 
changed his opinion, and retracted (as this cardinal 
saith) both in general and in particular, whatsoever he 
had before written in those three Prologues, where he 
had excluded the Maccabees out of the canon, f And 
so likewise to another objection brought to the same 
purpose out of the Commentaries of St. Gregory the 
Great, he gives the like answer, saying that St. Gregory, 
when he wrote that piece, was not yet come to be Pope, 
but was a plain Deacon only, being at that time em- 
ployed at Constantinople as the Pope's nuncio to the 
Greeks. 

Now these answers of his are either insufficient, or 
else it will necessarily follow from hence, that we ought 
not to rest certainly satisfied in the testimony of any 
Father ; except we first be assured, that not only he 
never afterwards retracted that opinion of his ; but that 
besides, he wrote it in the strength and ripeness of his 
judgment. And see now how we are fallen into a new 
labyrinth. For, first of all, from whence and by what 
means may we be able to come, truly and certainly, to 
the knowledge of this secret 5 when, as we can hardly 
meet with any conjectures, tending to the making 
of this discovery, namely, whether a Father hath in his 
old age changed his opinion on that point for which it 
is produced against us or not ? 

If they had all of them been either able or willing to 
have imitated the modesty of St. Augustin, we should 
then have had little left to trouble us. But you will 
hardly find any either of the ancients, or of those of 
later times, that have followed this example 5 unless it 

* Perron's Repl. 1. 1, c. 50. f Id. Ibid. 



122 THE DOCTRINES OF THE FATHERS 

be cardinal Bellarmine, who has lately thought good 
to revive this piece of modesty which had lain dead and 
buried for the space of so many ages together, by 
writing a Book of Retractations, which is very differently 
received by the learned of both religions. Yet, if you 
are fastidious upon it, with cardinal Perron, and not 
allow the saying of a Father to be of any value,' unless 
it were written by him after the maturity of his studies, 
I shall then ,despair of our ever making any progress, 
so much as one step forward, by this means, in the 
business in hand. For both parties will say, on every 
testimony that shall be produced against them, How do 
we know whether this Father had arrived at the maturity 
of his judgment when he wrote this book or not ? Who 
can tell whether or not, those days of his life that he 
enjoyed after the writing thereof, might not have 
bestowed clearness on his understanding, as well as 
whiteness on his head 5 and have changed his judgment, 
as well as his hair ? 

We will here suppose that no such thing appears in 
any of his other writings. How many authors are there 
who have changed their opinions, and yet have not 
retracted what they had formerly written ? But sup- 
pose now that we should have lost that particular tract 
wherein the author had given testimony of the changing 
of his opinion, what should we do in this case ? If 
time should have deprived us of St. Augustin's Retrac- 
tations, and some other of his later writings, as it has of 
an infinite number of other productions, both of his and 
of the other Fathers, which would have been of as 
great importance to us, we must certainly have thought 
that he had believed that the cause of predestination is 
the prescience or foreseeing of the faith of men ; if we 
only read what he says in one of the books which he 
first wrote, " That God has not elected the works of 
any man, according to his prescience ; seeing that it 
is He himself that gives the same to a man. But 
that He has elected his faith by His prescience 5 
that is, He hath elected those who He foresaw would 
believe His word ; that is to say, He made choice 
vi them to bestow His holy Spirit upon ; that so 



HAVE SOMETIMES CHANGED. 123 

by doing good works they might attain everlasting 
life."* 

Now would the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians have 
brought this passage as an infallible argument that St. 
Augustin was of their opinion : but that his Retrac- 
tation, and his other books which were written after- 
wards, clearly make it appear that this argument is 
of nof orce at all ; forasmuch as this learned Father, hav- 
ing afterwards better considered of this point, wholly 
altered his opinion : " I had not (says he) as yet dili- 
gently enough inquired into, nor found out, what the 
election of grace was, whereof the Apostle speaks in 
these words : ' There is a remnant (to be saved) accord- 
ing to the election of grace ;' which certainly is not grace, 
if any merits preceded it ; so that that which is given 
should be rendered rather as due to the merits than as 
given freely by grace." 

Now who knows but that among those Fathers whom 
we so confidently adduce every day, some of them may 
have retracted those things which we at this day read in 
their works ; and that time may have devoured the 
rectractations of their opinions, and may have left us only 
their errors ? Besides, who knows and can truly inform 
us what date their writings bear ? whether they were 
the fruits of their spring of life, or of their summer, or 
of their autumn ? whether they were gathered green, or 
were suffered to ripen upon the tree ? Doubtless this 
whole inquiry is very intricate 3 there being scarcely any 
mark of their season of life to be found in the greatest 
part of them. There are indeed some few of them that 
have some of these marks ! but yet they are so doubtful 
and uncertain, that the most able and distinguished 
critics are sometimes deceived in their inquiry on this 
matter. 

When all is done, who knows not that there are some 
trees that bear their summer fruit even in the very 
beginning of the summer, when the spring time is as 
yet hardly past ? And again, the fruits which are ga- 

* Non ergo elegit Deus opera cujusquam in praescientia, quae ipse 
daturas est: sed fidem elegit, &c. — August, Exposit. guar. proj). ex 
ep. Bom. proposit. 60. 

G 2 



194 THE DOCTRINES OF THE FATHERS. 

thered at the end of the later season are not always the 
the ripest : for time, instead of ripening, many times 
rots them. In like manner is it also with men, and 
consequently with the Fathers. Sometimes their sum- 
mer yields much more and better fruit than their autumn. 
For as for the winter, that is to say, the last part of our 
age, it is evident that it usually brings forth nothing at 
all : or if it do chance to force itself beyond nature, the 
fruits it brings forth are yet worse, and more crude and 
imperfect, than those even of the spring. 

Seeing therefore it is for the most part impossible to 
give any certain judgment of these things, either by the 
history of these authors, or by their books themselves ; 
and that again on the other side, without this, we ought not 
to depend upon any thing we find in their writings, by 
supposing we have discovered what their opinions have 
been : we may safely conclude in this matter also, as 
we have done in the former chapter, that it is very diffi- 
cult to know truly and precisely what the opinions and 
sense of the ancients have been, as regards the differ- 
ences at this day existing among Christians. 



OPINIONS HELD BY THE FATHERS. 125 



CHAPTER VIII. 

REASON VIII. THAT IT IS NECESSARY, BUT NEVERTHE- 
LESS DIFFICULT, TO DISCOVER HOW THE FATHERS 
HAVE HELD ALL THEIR SEVERAL OPINIONS j WHE- 
THER AS NECESSARY OR AS PROBABLE ONLY; AND IN 
WHAT DEGREE OF NECESSITY OR PROBABILITY. 

Logic teaches us that true propositions are not all equal- 
ly so : some of them being contingent only, as the schools 
speak, and others being necessary • and again, both be- 
ing more or less either contingent or necessary, accord- 
ing to that admirable division which the philosopher has 
made into those three degrees of necessity, explained by 
him in the first book of his Demonstrations : — Kara 
77a vtoq, foaO' avro, kclSoXov irphyTov,* 

Hence it comes to pass, that the knowledge or ignorance 
of these degrees is the more or less important in those 
sciences whereunto they appertain ; there being some of 
them, as those which they call principles, that are so 
necessary, that a man cannot be ignorant of them, with- 
out overthrowing the whole science wherein they ought 
to have place : and there being others again, on the 
contrary side, that a man may be ignorant of, so far as 
to hold their contradictories for true, and yet neverthe- 
less not run any great hazard. As for example, these 
following are philosophical principles of the first sort : 
namely, " That there is motion :" and " that everybody 
occupies some certain place," and the like. For I 
beg to say, what strange philosophy would it be, that 
should either be ignorant of or should deny these 
principles ? But these following are of the second sort : 
namely, ' 4 That there are precisely but five senses in living 
creatures :" and " That the heavens are not of elementary 
substance," and the like. 

* Arist. Poster. Analyt. 



126 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 

Although these propositions are by most held to be 
true, yet notwithstanding are they not so necesxary, but 
that a man may pass for a philosopher, and yet not only 
be ignorant of those positions, but may also, if he please, 
maintain even those things that are contradictory to 
them. Now if there be any science where this consi- 
deration ought carefully to be applied, it is, in my judg- 
ment, in that of divinity. For there is a very great differ- 
ence between the truths of which it consists : some of 
them being evidently more necessary than others, as 
Origen proves plainly in his 2/th Homily upon St. 
Matthew. Only compare these two propositions toge- 
ther : " Christ is God ; and Christ suffered death, being 
of the age of thirty-four, or thirty-five years." Who 
sees not that though both these propositions are true, yet 
notwithstanding there is a vast difference between them. 
For the former of these is necessarily true ; that is to 
say, it is impossible but that Christ should be God ; the 
salvation of mankind, which is the end of our religion, 
being otherwise not possible to be obtained. But as to the 
second, notwithstanding that it is true, and is collected 
clearly enough out of the Scriptures, yet is it not at all 
necessary. For Christ might, if he had so pleased, have 
suffered at the fortieth or fiftieth year of his age, without 
any prejudice at all to our salvation, which was the end 
of his suffering. 

According to this diversity of degrees, the belief or ig- 
norance of these two propositions are also of very different 
importance. The first of them we ma3 r not be ignorant 
of, and much less deny, without renouncing Christianity. 
The second we may be ignorant of, and even deny too, 
as supposing it false, yet without any great danger. To 
be able therefore to come to a clear and perfect under- 
standing what was the sense of the Fathers, touching 
the points of religion at this day controverted amongst 
us, it is necessary that we should know not only whe- 
ther they believed them or not, but also how they 
believed or did not believe them : that is to say, whether 
they held them as propositions necessarily or probably 
either true or false ; and, moreover, in what degree 
either of necessity or probability they placed them. 

That this inquiry is very necessary, cardinal Perron 



HELD BY THE FATHERS. 127 

has clearly demonstrated, in that learned epistle of his, 
written to Casaubon, against king James. The king 
attributing to himself the name of Catholic, under pre- 
tence that he believed, and held all those things that the 
Fathers of the four or five first centuries did ; the car- 
dinal denies his inference ; replying, among other things, 
that to be of the communion of the ancients, a man 
ought not only to believe what they believed, but also 
to believe it in the same manner and in the same degree 
that they did : that is, to believe as necessary to sal- 
vation whatever they believed as necessary thereto ; and 
to believe as profitable to salvation what they held for 
such ; and as lawful and not repugnant to salvation, 
what they held as lawful and not repugnant to salvation. 
Thus he goes on, and gives us a long and exact division 
of the different degrees of necessity, which may and 
ought to be considered- in all propositions on religion. 

I could sincerely wish that the occasion had carried 
on this learned prelate so far as to have made an exact 
application of this doctrine, and to have truly informed 
us (of what the greatest part of the world is at this 
day ignorant) in what degree each point of the Christian 
faith is held, either by the Church of Rome, or by the 
ancient Fathers j and what things are absolutely neces- 
sary in religion, and what are those other things that 
are necessary under some certain conditions only : which 
again are necessary by the necessity of the means $ and 
which, by the necessity of the precept, (as he there 
speaks) ; that is to say, which are those things that we 
ought to observe, either by reason of their profit, as 
being means which are profitable to salvation 5 and 
which we are to observe, by reason of the commandment 
only, being enjoined us by such an authority as w r e owe 
obedience to : and moreover, after these points, which 
all and every of the faithful are bound to believe ex- 
pressly 5 and which are those that it is sufficient to be- 
lieve in gross only, and by an implicit faith : and lastly, 
which are those things that we ought actually to do ; 
and which are those that it is sufficient if we approve of 
them only, though we do them not ? So that it appears 
clear, out of these words of his, that to be able to know 
what the doctrines of the Fathers have been, especially 
in the points now in dispute, we ought first to be as- 



12S ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 

sured in what degree they believed the same. That 
this distinction was of very great consideration with 
the ancient church, appears sufficiently from the spe- 
cial regard which it always had to it ; opening or 
shutting the door against men, first of all, according to 
the things which they believed or did not believe ; 
secondly, according to the different manner they 
believed or did not believe them. For it excom- 
municated those who rejected the things that it 
held as necessary -, and so likewise those who pressed 
as things necessary such as it held for things probable 
only. But it received, with all the suavity imaginable, 
all those who either were ignorant of, or doubted, or 
indeed denied, those things which it accounted true, 
yet not necessarily so. This appears clearly from an 
epistle written by Irenaeus to Victor bishop of Rome, 
cited by Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History :* 
where this holy man testifieth, that although there had 
been, before Victor's time, the same difference between 
the Asiatic and the Romish Church, touching the cele- 
bration of Easter; yet notwithstanding they lived in 
peace and mutual amity together ; neither were any of 
the Asiatic bishops ever excommunicated at Rome, 
for their dissenting from them, either in this or in any 
other point; but rather the contrary $ for on Poly carpus 
coming to Rome, in the time of Pope Anicetus, after 
they had had a conference on the differences between 
them, and each of them continued still firm in his 
former opinion ; they still did not forbear holding fair 
correspondence with each other, and to communicate 
together; Anicetus also, out of the respect he bore to 
Polycarpus, allowing him the use of his own church, to 
celebrate the Eucharist in. 

Tertullian, in his book "De Pra?scriptionibus adver- 
sus Haereticos," requires only that the rule of faith (as 
he calls it) should continue in its proper form and order - y 
allowing every man, in all other particulars, to make 
what inquiries and discourses he pleased, and to exercise 
his curiosity to the utmost liberty j+ which is an evident 

* Hist. Eccles. Euseb. lib. 5, cap. 24, Cod. Gncci, cap. 26. 

f Cffiter&m rnanente forma ejus in suo ordine, quantumlibet qua?- 

ras, ct tractes, et omncm libidinem curiositatis cffundas, &c Terlul. 

fU l'ra: script, advert. Jlcitrel. Vid. I. de Virg, vcl. L 1. 



HELD BY THE FATHERS. 129 

argument, that he admitted into his communion all those 
who, not contradicting the rule of faith, broached any- 
other opinions -, that is, if they held them as probable 
only, and proposed not anything which was contrary to 
the rule of faith. 

The author of the Apology of Origen,* published by 
Ruffinus, under the name of Pamphilus, w T as of the 
same opinion. For having confessed that Origen, if he 
held not, yet published certain very strange opinions on 
the state of the soul before the birth of man, and on the 
nature of the stars, he maintains that these opinions do 
not presently make a man a heretic -, and that even 
among the doctors of the Church there was diversity 
of opinion on the same. 

Besides all this, it is evident that this difference of 
judgment is even at this day to be found in the Church 
of Rome -, where you shall find the Jacobins and the 
Franciscans maintaining opinions entirely contradictory 
to each other, on the conception of the Virgin Mary ; 
the one maintaining that she was conceived without sin, 
whereas the other utterly deny it. And that which 
makes me wonder the more is, that they suffer such 
contradictory opinions as these to be held amongst them, 
in such particulars as, considered barely in themselves, 
seem yet to be of very great importance. As for ex- 
ample, a man may either believe that we ought to yield 
to the cross the adoration of Latvia ; or, if he please, 
he may believe the contrary ; without losing, either by 
reason of the one or the other, the communion of the 
Church and salvation. Yet notwithstanding, if you but 
consider the thing in itself, it will appear to be a matter 
of no such indifference as people imagine. For if the 
former of these opinions be indeed true, then must those 
that are of the other opinion sin very grievously, in not 
worshipping a subject that is so worthy of adoration. 
But if it be false, then are those men that maintain the 
same guilty of a much greater sin, by committing such 
horrible idolatry. 

What point is there in religion, that seems to be of 
greater importance than that concerning the foundation 

* Apol. Orig. inter opera Origen. 
G 5 



130 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 

and head of all ecclesiastical power, upon the authority of 
which the whole faith and state of the Church depends ? 
And yet on this particular also, which is of such great 
consequence, do they suffer men to maintain contradic- 
tory opinions 3 some attributing this dignity to the 
Pope, and others to a general council. 

If the opinion of the first of these be true, then is 
the faith of the latter built upon a very erroneous 
ground :* but if the opinion of the latter be true, then 
does the faith of the former depend upon a cause which 
is not infallible 3 and consequently is null. Now these 
different opinions are reconciled, by saying that the 
Church accounting neither of these doctrines as neces- 
sary to faith, a man is not at once a heretic for holding 
the false opinion of the two, nor yet is he to be accounted 
orthodox, merely for holding the true one. 

Seeing therefore that this particular concerns the 
communion of the Church, and our salvation also, 
which depends thereon, it will behove us to know 
certainly in what degree the ancients placed those ar- 
ticles which are at this day so eagerly pressed upon 
the Protestants 3 and whether they held them in the 
same, or in a higher, or else in a lower degree of ne- 
cessity than they are now maintained by the Church of 
Rome. For unless this be made very clear, the Pro- 
testants, though they should confess (which yet they do 
not) that the Fathers did indeed really believe the 
same, might yet allege for themselves, that, notwith- 
standing all this, they are not bound to believe the 
same 3 inasmuch as all opinions in religion are not at 
once obligatory, and such as all men are bound to be- 
lieve 5 seeing that there are some that are indeed ne- 
cessary, but some others that are not so. They will 
answer likewise, that these opinions are similar to those at 
this day controverted between the Dominicans and the 
Franciscans 3 or to those other points debated between 
the Sorbonists and the Regulars ; wherein every one is 
permitted to hold what opinions he pleases. They will 
urge for themselves the determination of the council of 

* Perron. Repl.1. 4, in Prsefat 



HELD BY THE FATHERS. 13l 

Trent ;** which in express terms distinguishes between 
the opinions of the Fathers : where having thundered 
out an anathema against all those that should maintain 
that the administering of the Eucharist was necessary 
for little infants, they further declare that this thunder- 
bolt extended not to those ancient Fathers who gave 
the communion to infants ; inasmuch as they main- 
tained and practised this from being moved there- 
unto upon probable reasons only, and not accounting 
it necessary to salvation. 

Seeing therefore that some errors which have been 
condemned by councils, may be maintained in such a 
certain degree, without incurring thereby the danger 
of their thunderbolts ; for the same reason a man may 
be ignorant of, and even deny some truths also, without 
running the hazard of being anathematized. Who can 
assure us (the Protestants may further add) that the 
articles which we reject are not of this kind ? and such 
as that, though perhaps they may be true, it is never- 
theless lawful for us to disbelieve. My opinion therefore 
is, that there is no man now that sees not that it con- 
cerns the doctors of the Romish Church, if they mean to 
convince their adversaries out of the Fathers, the first to 
make it appear unto them that the ancients held the said 
points, not only as true but as necessary also, and in the 
very same degree of necessity that they now hold them. 
Now this must prove a matter of extreme difficulty, and 
much greater here than in any of the other points 'before 
proposed. And I shall adduce no other argument for 
the proof of this than that very degree we cited before, 
where the council of Trent has declared that the Fathers 
did not administer the Communion to infants, " out of 
any opinion that it was necessary to salvation, but 
did it upon some other probable reasons only."f For 
we have not only very good reason to doubt, whether 
the Fathers held this opinion and followed this practice 
as probable only ; but it seems besides (with all reverence 

* Cone. Trident. Sess. 21, cap. 5, extr. et Can. 4. 
' t Ut enim sanctissimi illi Patres sui facti probabilem causam pro 
illius temporis ratione habuerunt ; ita certe eos nulla salutis necessitate 
id fecisse, sine controversia tenendum est. — Concil. trident. Sess. 
21. C 4. 



132 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 

to that counsel be it spoken) to appear evidently enough 
out of their writings, that they did hold it as necessary. 

Only hear the Fathers themselves, and St. Augustin 
in the first place, who says, " That the Churches of Christ 
hold by an ancient, and as I conceive (says he) an 
apostolical tradition, that without Baptism and the 
Communion of the Lord's Table, no man can come 
either into the kingdom of God, or unto salvation or 
eternal life/'** Afterwards having, as he conceives, 
proved this out of the Scriptures, he adds further : " See- 
ing therefore that no man can hope either for eternal life 
or salvation without Baptism and the body and blood of 
Christ, " (thus does he call the Sacrament of the Eucha- 
rist, acccording to the language of his time) ; " as 
has been proved by so many divine testimonies ; in vain 
is it promised to infants without the participating of 
these. "f Three chapters before, treating of those words 
of our Saviour in St. John, " Except you eat my flesh, 
and drink my blood, you can have no life in you/' 
(which words Augustin understands, both there and 
elsewhere, of the Communion of the Eucharist,) he 
makes a long discourse to prove that they extend as 
well to infants as to people of maturer age. " Is there 
any man (says he) that dares affirm that this speech 
belongs not to infants also ; or that they may have life 
in them, without participating of this body, and of this 
blood ?"{ And this is his constant manner of speaking, 
in eight or ten other passages in his works, which are 
too long to be here inserted. § 

* Exantiqua, utexistirao, etapostolica traditione Ecclesise Christi 
insitum tenent, prseter Baptismum et participationem Dominican men- 
see, non solum ad regnum Dei, sed nee ad salutem, et vitam aeternam 
pos-^e quenquam hominum pervenire. Hoc enim et Seriptura testa- 
tur, &c. — Aug* I. l, de Peccat. Mnr.ci Remiss, 

f Si ergo, ut tot et tanta divina testimonia concinunt, nee salus, 
nee vita aiterna sine Baptismo, et corpore et sanguine Domini cui- 
quam spectanda est ; frustra sine his promittitur parvulis Ibid. 

I \n vero quisquam etiam hoc dicere audebit, quod ad parvulos 
hsec Bententia non pertineat ; possintque sine participatione corporis 
hujus et sanguinis in se habere vilam, &c — hi. ibid. C. 20. 

i Td. t. 2, cp. 106, ep. 107,ep. poster, ib. Mar. 1. 2, contr. Pel. et 
Ceteftt c 18, 1. 1, contr. 2. ep. IMag. ad lion. cap. 22, et 1. 4, c. 4, 
1. l. contr. Jul. et 1. 3, c. 1. et. c. 12, Jil). dePraedeat. Sanct. ad Prosp. 
c. 13, llypomn. 1. 5 et G, Tract. 120, in Job. Serm. 32, de verb. Ap. 



HELD BY THE FATHERS. 133 

Pope Innocent I., August in's contemporary, speaks 
also after the same manner ; proving against the Pela- 
gians that Baptism is necessary for infants, to render 
them capable of eternal life ; inasmuch as without Bap- 
tism they cannot communicate of the Eucharist, which 
is necessary to salvation.* 

St. Cyprian also,t long before them, spake to the very 
same sense : and this Maldonate affirms to have been 
the opinion of the six first centuries. J 

These things being considered, we must infer either 
that the council of Trent, by its declaration, has made 
that which has been, to be as if it had never been, 
which is a power that the poet Agatho in Aristotle would 
not allow to God himself :§ or else that the Fathers of 
this council, either out of forgetfulness or otherwise, 
mistook themselves in this account of theirs respecting 
the opinion of the ancient Church in this particular : 
which in my judgment is the mere favourable and the 
more probable conceit of the two : and if so, I shall 
then desire no more. For if these great personages, 
who were chosen with so much care and circumspection, 
out of all parts of Christendom, and sent to Trent, to 
deliberate upon and determine a matter of the greatest 
importance in the world ; and were directed by the 
legates of such supereminent wisdom, and digested their 
decrees with a judgment so mature and deliberate, that 
there is scarcely one word in them without its design — 
if after all this, I say, these men should be found to have 
erred in this inquiry, in affirming that the Fathers 
held only as probable that which they evidently appear 
to have held as necessary, if Pope Pius IV., with his 

* Illud vero quod eos vestra fraternitas asserit praedicare, parvulos 
aeternae vitas prcfimiis, etiam sine baptismatis gratia posse donari, 
perfatuum est. Nisi enim manducaverint carnem filii hominis, et 
biberint sanguinem ejus, non habebunt vitam aeternam in semetipsis. 
{Innoc. in ep. ad, Milevit. Synod, qua est inter ep. Aug. 15.) — Vid. 
Aug. 1. 2, contr. 2. ap. Pelag, c. 4, et lib. 1, contr. Jul. c. 2. 

t Cyprian, lib. 3, Test, ad Qui. c. 25. 

X Missam facio Augustini et Innoentiil. sententiam, quae sexcen- 
tos circiter annos viguit in Ecclesia, Eucharistiam etiam infantibus 
necessariam. — Maldon. in Joan, c. 6. num. 116. 

§ Moi/ou yap aiirou xai Qsog <rTeps(rxeTcci, 'Ayevvv-ra noisiv olcctt'' a* fj 7re- 
7rfxy[Asva. — Agatho apud Aristot. Eth. ad Nicom. 1. f. c. 2. 



134 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 

whole consistory, consisting of so many eminent and 
wise men, has approved and confirmed this mistake of 
theirs, not perceiving it at all,- — what can we, or indeed 
what ought we, to expect from any other hands, whose 
soever they be, as regards the points now controverted 
between us ; in comparison with which, a man may very 
well say, that all the difficulty which this matter now 
presents is nothing at all ; wherein, notwithstanding, this 
whole council mistook itself? Where shall we find a 
man, that after this failing of theirs, can have the cou- 
rage to adventure upon so difficult and so intricate an 
undertaking ? Who can promise himself success there, 
where so great a council has failed ? The very hope of 
effecting so weighty a matter can hardly be excused 
from the guilt of high presumption. For, first of all, 
the Fathers tell us very seldom in what degree, either 
of necessity or probability, they held their opinions : 
and even when they do tell us, their expressions being 
such as we have observed of them, we ought not at once 
to conclude anything from them, without first examining 
them thoroughly. For many times, when they would 
recommend unto us such things as they accounted pro- 
fitable for us, they would speak of them as if they had 
been necessary : and so again, to take off our belief of 
and to divert our affections from such things as they 
conceived either to be simply false, or otherwise unpro- 
fitable for us, they represented them as the most detest- 
able and pernicious things. " Whosoever (said Igna- 
tius) fasteth upon the Lord's day, or upon any Satur- 
day, except that one Saturday (meaning Easter-eve), he 
is a murderer of Christ :" — El rtg KuptaKrjy, rj (mfifiarov 
vrjarevEL, ir\r)v kvog (ra/3/3arov, ovrog XpHjTOKrovog itm.'* 

Who would not think, hearing these tragical expres- 
sions of his, that certainly he was speaking of the very 
foundation of the whole Christian religion ? And yet 
the business he there speaks of was only the observa- 
tion of a certain part of a positive law, and which yet 
(as most are of opinion) was at that time received but 
by a part only of the Church ; the belief and observa- 
tion whereof was so far from being classed among those 

m * Ignat. ep. 4, ad Phil. 



HELD BY THE FATHERS. 135 

things that were necessary, that it was scarcely placed 
in the first degree of probability ; and is now at length 
utterly abolished. 

This manner of discoursing is very frequently used 
by Tertullian, St. Ambrose, and especially by St. Hie- 
rome ; who are all so enthusiastic for the side they es- 
pouse that you would think, in reading them,, that all 
those whom they commend were really angels ; and all 
those whom they speak against were arrant devils ; that 
whatsoever they maintain, are the very foundations and 
ground-work of the Christian religion -, and whatsoever 
they refute is mere atheism, and the highest impiety. 

Certainly St. Hierome, writing to a certain Roman 
matron, named Furia, who was a widow, and dissuad- 
ing her from marrying again,* discourses of this matter 
in the very same manner as he would have done in 
dissuading her from the committing of murder. 

Here we are to call to mind again the various reasons 
for the obscurity of the Fathers, and particularly that of 
their rhetoric, all which have place in this particular 
rather than in any other. So that there seems to be 
but one only certain way left us to discover in what 
degree they placed the propositions of Christian 
doctrine ; namely, their creeds and expositions of their 
faith, whether they were general, or particular ones j 
and the determinations of their councils and ecclesias- 
tical assemblies. For we may very well believe that 
they held as necessary all such points as they made pro- 
fession of ; anathematizing all such as should deny the 
same. By this rule we may indeed assure ourselves 
that they held as necessary the greatest part of all those 
points wherein we at this day agree among ourselves. 
Some of these we have already noticed in our preface : 
for they are most of them either delivered expressly in 
their creeds, or else positively determined in their coun- 
cils ; and the contradictors of them there expressly con- 
demned. But yet this rule will scarcely be of any use 
in the decision of our present controversies. For some 
of them appear not at all, either in that Rule of Faith 
so often mentioned by Tertullian,, or in the Nicene creed, 

* Hieron. ep 10, ad Furiam, torn l. 



136 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 

or in that of Constantinople, or in the determinations 
of the council of Ephesus, or in those of Chalcedon. 
The first of these councils anathematized Arius ; the 
second Macedonius ; the third Nestorius ; and the 
fourth Eutyches : and yet nevertheless are the several 
tenets of these very men at this day received, and 
maintained by one side or other. Nay, what is more, 
the aforesaid articles do not appear at all in the two 
following councils ; namely, the second council of Con- 
stantinople, which condemned certain writings of Theo- 
dorus, Theodoretus, and Ibas, as we have noticed be- 
fore : nor yet in the :3rd council of Constantinople, 
which anathematized the Monothelites, and was held 
about the year of our Lord 1681. Yet have these first 
six councils (if you believe the Fathers of the seven) 
<e established and confirmed all those things which had 
been taught in the Catholic Church from the primitive 
times, whether by writing or by unwritten tradition :" 
Yiavra ra Trapa^odevra kv rr\ KaOoXtKr] eiacXeariq,, kcli eyypa- 
(po)Q, /cat aypa(j)(jL)Qi etc tljv apyj)dev yjpoviov, avrai (Sex Sy- 
nodi Oecumenical) kcii tfiefiaihHjav, kcjll tGT-qpi^av.* 

It will hence follow, that these points, which appear 
not here in the said six first councils at all, were not 
taught from the beginning, either in writing or other- 
wise. 

About the eighth century however, and for a good 
while afterwards, we find mention of one of those points 
now controverted among us, namely, on images; which 
was diversely and contrarily determined in the councils 
of Constantinople, of Nicsea, and of Francfort ; the 
second of those councils enjoining the use and adora- 
tion of images ; whereas the first had utterly forbidden 
it : and the last of these councils taking off, and cor- 
recting, as it were, the excesses of the other two. 
What can you say to this, that neither in the writings 
of particular men, which yet are usually more copious 
than the determinations of councils are, there is so much 
as any mention made of the said points? 

Epiphanius,t in the conclusion of his Treatise of IIc- 

* Synod. 7, Art. C\ Refut. Synod. leonool. 
-f Epiphan. in Panar. 1. ;i, et in Aiiacephal. 



HELD BY THE FATHERS. 137 

resies, gives us two discourses ; in the one of which he 
notes down the order, customs, and discipline of the 
Church in his time : wherein I must say, that there are 
many things which much differ from the customs that 
are at this day observed by us on both sides. In the 
other is contained an exposition of the faith of the 
Church entered at large, which he calls " The pillar of 
the truth, the hope and assurance of immortality :" — 
Tovto to epELCfia tttjq aXrjSeictQ, fj eXttiq kcli f] jiefiaiuxng rrjg 

CKpOapfflCLQ.* 

Yet of all those controversies which are at this day dis- 
puted amongst us, you shall there meet with one only ; 
and that in the local descent of our Saviour Christ into 
hell : which yet is an article of very small importance, 
as every one knows. In the acts of the sixth council 
we have a synodical epistle of Sophronius, patriarch of 
Jerusalem ;f wherein, as the usual custom was, he ex- 
plains the faith, in a very ample and particular manner : 
and yet, notwithstanding, you shall not there meet 
with any of those points which are now controverted 
amongst us. 

Those that search more closely into the business, will 
be apt positively to conclude from this their silence, 
that these points were not at that time any part of the 
doctrine of the Church : and certainly this kind of ar- 
gument seems not to want reason. But as regards my- 
self, it is sufficient that the truth of my assertion is 
confirmed -, that it is, if not impossible, at least a very 
difficult thing to discover in what degree, either of neces- 
sity or probability , the ancient Fathers held each of those 
points, which are now disputed amongst us ; seeing that 
they appear not at all, either in the expositions of their 
faith, or in the determinations of their councils » which 
are, as it were, the catalogues of those points of doc- 
trine, which they accounted necessary. 

* Epiphan. in Panar. 1. 3, et in Anacephal. 
f Concil. vi. Act. 2. 



138 DIFFICULTIES OF DISCOVERING 



CHAPTER IX. 

REASON IX. WE OUGHT TO KNOW WHAT HAVE BEEN 

THE OPINIONS,NOT OF ONE ORMOREOFTHE FATHERS, 
BUT OF THE WHOLE ANCIENT CHURCH : WHICH IS A 
VERY DIFFICULT MATTER TO DISCOVER. 

Those who make the most account of the writings of 
the Fathers, and who urge them the oftenest in their 
disputations, inform us, that the value of their sen- 
timents in these matters arises from the fact, that they 
are so many testimonies of the general sense and judg- 
ment of the Church -, to which alone these men attribute 
the supreme power of judging in controversies of reli- 
gion. For if we should consider them severally, each 
by himself, and as they stand by their own strength 
only, they confess that they may chance to err j so that 
it will hence follow, that in order to make use of the 
testimonies of the Fathers, it is not sufficient for us to 
know whether such or such sentiments be truly theirs, 
and if so, what the meaning of them is j but we ought 
further also to be very well assured that they are con- 
formable to the belief of the Church in their time : in 
the same manner as in a court of judicature, the opinion 
of any single person of the bench is of no weight at all, 
as to the passing of judgment, unless it be conformable 
to the opinion of all the rest, or at least of the major 
part of those present. 

Now observe how we are fallen again into new diffi- 
culties. Whence and by what means can we learn 
whether the whole Church, in the time of Justin Martyr, 
or of St. Agustin, or of St. Hierome, maintained the 
same opinions in every particular that these men 
severally did, or not ? I confess that the charity of 
these men was very great j and that they very heartily 



THE OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 139 

and constantly embraced the body and substance of the 
belief of the Church, in all particulars, that they saw 
apparently to be such. But where the Church did not 
at all express itself, and clearly declare what its sense 
was, they could not possibly, however great their desire 
of so doing, follow its authority as the rule of their 
opinions. Wheresoever therefore they treat of points 
which were long since decided, believed, and received, 
expressly and positively, by the whole Christian 
Church, either of their own age, or of any of the pre- 
ceding ages, it is very probable that they did conform 
to what was believed by the Church : so that, in these 
cases, their sentiments may very well pass for a testi- 
mony of the judgment and sense of the Church : it 
being very improbable, that they could be either ignorant 
what was the public doctrine of the Church ; or that 
knowing the same, they would not follow it. As for 
example, when Athanasius, St. Ambrose, St. Hierome, 
St. Augustin, and others, discourse on the Son of God, 
they speak nothing but what is conformable to the 
belief of the Church in general, because the belief of the 
Church had then been clearly and expressly delivered 
upon this point ; so that whatsoever they say, as to this 
particular, may safely be received as a testimony of the 
Church's belief. 

The same may be done in all the other points which 
have either been positively determined in any of the 
general councils, or delivered in any of the creeds, or 
that any other way appears to have been the public 
belief of the Church. 

If the Fathers had but contained themselves within 
these bounds, and had not taken the liberty to treat of 
any thing, save what the Church had clearly delivered 
its judgment upon, this rule might then have been 
received as a general one ; and, whatever opinion we 
found in them, we might safely have concluded it to 
have been the sense of the Church as existing in their 
time. But the curiosity of man's nature, together with 
the impudence of the heretics, and the tenderness of 
conscience, whether of their own or of others, and 
divers other reasons perhaps, having partly made them 



140 DIFFICULTIES OF DISCOVERING 

willingly, and partly forced, and as it were constrained 
them to go on further, and to proceed to the search of 
the truth of several points, which had not as yet been 
established by the universal and public consent of all 
Christians ; it could not be avoided, but that necessarily 
they must in these inquiries make use of their own 
proper light, and must deliver upon the same their own 
private opinions, which the Church, that came after 
them, has since either embraced or rejected. 

I shall not here stand to prove my opinion, since it is 
a thing that is confessed on all hands, and whereof the 
Romanists make special use upon all occasions, in 
answering several objections brought against them out 
of the Fathers. As, for example, where cardinal Bel- 
larmine excuseth the error of Pope John XXII. on the 
state of departed souls before the Resurrection ;* by 
saying, that the Church, in his time, had not as yet 
determined any thing as to this particular. So likewise,, 
where he applies the same salvo to that (in his judg- 
ment) unsound opinion of Pope Nicolas I., who main- 
tained that Baptism, administered in the name of Jesus 
Christ only, without expressing the other persons of the 
Holy Trinity, was, notwithstanding, valid and effectual. f 
i( This is a point (says Bellarmine) on which we find 
not the Church to have determined any thing." And, 
however dangerous and almost heretical the opinion of 
those men seem to him, who hold that the Pope of 
Rome may fall into heresy ; yet does he permit Pope 
Adrian to hold the same, not daring to rank him among 
the heretics, because the Church had not as yet clearly 
and definitively expressed itself on this point. 

The same Bellarmine, in another controversy of great 
importance, regarding the Canonical Books of the Old 
Testament, (finding himself closely put to it, by his 
adversary's urging against him the authority of St. 
Hierome, who casts Tobit, the Book of Wisdom, Eccle- 



* Bellarm. de Rom. Pont. 1. 4, c. 14. Sect. Respondeo in pri- 
mis, &c. 

t Non invenitur ulla cerla definitio Ecclesioe de hac re. — Id. ibid. 
Sect. ult. ex his. 



THE OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 141 

siasticus, and the Maccabees, out of the Canon, con- 
trary to the judgment of the Church of Rome, which 
received them in), gets over this objection after the 
same manner. " I confess (says he) that St. Hierome 
held this opinion, because no general council had as yet 
ordained any thing regarding these books." 

Seeing therefore that it is most clear, both from the 
confession of our adversaries, and from the consideration 
of the thing itself, that the Fathers have in their writ- 
ings circulated many of their own particular opinions, 
digested out of their own private meditations, and 
which they had not learnt in the school of the Church — 
who sees not, that before we give any certain credit 
unto their sentiments, we ought first to be assured of 
what nature they are ? Whether they were their own 
particular opinions only, or the public feeling of their 
age : since it is confessed by all, that those of the 
former kind are not always necessarily obligatory, but 
are such as oftentimes may, and sometimes ought to be 
rejected, without any scruple at all. 

You may urge perhaps to a Protestant, that St. 
Hierome worshipped the relics of departed saints. How 
shall I know, (will he reply upon you again) whether 
this was his private opinion only, or not ? If the 
authority of this Father, for want of being grounded 
upon some public declaration of the Church, could not 
bind Bellarmine to receive his opinion on the Canon of 
the Old Testament, why should this opinion of his, 
which is not any whit better grounded than the other, 
persuade me to the worship of relics ? The same 
reply will he make, and many times with much more 
appearance of reason,concerning divers other testimonies 
produced out of the Fathers. So that, whether you 
would confirm your own faith, or wh ether you would 
wrest out of your adversary's hand this manner of 
reply, and make good all such allegations, it will behove 
you to make it clear, concerning any passage what- 
ever that you shall urge out of a Father, that it is not 
his own private opinion, but was that of the Church 
itself wherein he lived : which, in my judgment, is a 
thing that is more difficult to be demonstrated, than 



142 DIFFICULTIES OF DISCOVERING 

any of those matters we have yet discoursed upon. For 
those means by which we might easily attain to this 
knowledge are wanting, and those which we have left 
us, are very feeble, and very inconclusive. 

If the Fathers themselves had but taken so much 
pains, as to have distinguished betwixt these two sorts 
of opinions, informing us, in every particular case, 
which were their own private ones only, and which 
were taught by the whole Church ; or, at least, had but 
proposed some of them as doubtful, and others again as 
assured truths, in the same manner as Origen has some- 
times done, they would indeed have aided us very much ; 
though, to say the truth, they would not have wholly cured 
us of our grief : forasmuch as sometimes (as we shall 
hereafter make it appear,*) they attribute to the Church 
those things which it is most evident it never held. 
Yet they very seldom make any such distinction, but 
commonly express their own private opinions in- the 
same manner as they do their public ones ; and some- 
times also, by reason of the partial feelings to which 
these authors might chance naturally to have been 
subject, we have them recommending unto us [ with 
much more eagerness that which they have conceived, 
and brought forth themselves, than that which they 
have received from any other hand ; so that we shall 
meet with very little in them that may afford us any 
light in this particular. 

There would be left us yet another aid in this busi- 
ness, by comparing that which they say here and there 
throughout their writings, with the public opinions of 
the Church, which would be rather a safe and certain 
rule to go by, had we any where else, besides their 
books, any clear and certain evidence what the belief of 
the Church has been, in each distinct age, on all points 
of religion : and if this were so, we should not then 
need to trouble ourselves with studying the writings 
of the Fathers, seeing that we read them for no other 
purpose, but only to discover out of them what the 

* Infra, 1. 2, c. 1. 



THE OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 143 

doctrine of Christendom has been on those points 
which are at this day controverted among us. Yet 
there is no man but knows that this aid is wanting to 
us. For,, setting aside the creeds, and the deter- 
minations of the six first General Councils, and of 
some few of the Provincial, you will not meet with 
any work of this nature throughout the whole stock of 
antiquity. 

Now (as we have already made it appear in the 
preceding chapter), the ancient Church has not any 
where declared, either in its creeds or in the aforesaid 
councils, what the opinion and sense of it has been, 
on the greatest part of those points which are now in 
dispute amongst us ; it followeth therefore, that by this 
means we shall never be able to distinguish, in the 
writings of the Fathers, which were their own private 
opinions, and which they held in common with the rest 
of the Church. 

If we could indeed learn, from any creditable author, 
that the present controversies had ever been decided 
by the ancient Church, we should then readily believe 
that the Fathers would have followed this their deci- 
sion : and then, although the Constitutions themselves 
would not perhaps have come down to our hands, yet 
notwithstanding should we be in some sort obliged to 
believe, that the Fathers, who had both seen and 
assented to the same, would also have delivered over 
the sense of them unto us in their writings. But we 
meet with no such thing in any author : for it rather 
appears evidently to the contrary, through the whole 
course of Ecclesiastical history, that these matters 
were never so much as started in the first ages of 
Christianity. Thus far have they been then from being 
decided. So that it manifestly appears from hence, 
that if the Fathers of those primitive times have by 
chance said any thing of them, they took not what 
they said from the determinations of the Church, 
which had not as yet declared itself on the same, 
but expressed rather their own private thoughts and 
opinions. 

Neither will it be to any purpose to object here, that 



144 DIFFICULTIES OF DISCOVERING 

the testimonies of many Fathers together do represent 
unto us the sense of the Church, although the voice of 
one or two single persons only is not sufficient to do 
the same. For, not to answer that that which hath 
happened to one may have happened to many others, 
and that, if some particular persons chance to have 
met with some particular opinions, possibly others 
may either have accompanied or else have followed 
them in the same,— I say further, that this objection is 
of no force at all in this particular. For, seeing that 
the Church had not as yet declared its opinion pub- 
licly on the points at this day controverted, it is as 
impossible that many together, that lived in the same 
time, should represent it unto us, as that one single 
person should. How could they possibly have seen 
that which lay as yet concealed ? How could they pos- 
sibly measure their belief by such a rule, as was not yet 
visible to the world ? 

The Chiliasts adduce the testimonies, not of one, 
or of two, but of a very great number of the most 
eminent and the most ancient among the Fathers, 
who were all of their opinion, as we ^hall see here- 
after.* The answer that is ordinarily made to this 
objection, is, that the Church having not as yet de- 
clared its sense on this point, the testimonies of these 
men bind us not to believe the same ; which is an 
evident argument, that a great number, in this case, 
signifies no more than a small one, in representing to 
us what the belief of the Church has been ; and that it 
is necessary, that either by some General Council, or 
else by some other public way, it must have declared 
its judgment on any question in dispute j in order that 
we may know whether the Fathers have been of the 
same opinion or not. So that, according to this ac- 
count, we are to raise up again the whole ancient 
Church, and to call it to account on every one of these 
particular points now discussed, on which the testi- 
monies of the Fathers are adduced 5 it being impossible 



* Book II. ch. iv. 



THE OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENT FATHERS. 145 

otherwise to give any certain judgment, whether that 
which they say be their own private opinion, or that 
of the public 5 that is to say, whether it be fit to be 
believed or not. 

Thus any man, even of the meanest judgment, 
may easily perceive that it is not only difficult, but 
almost impossible, to draw from the writings of the 
Fathers such information as is necessary for our satis- 
faction in matters of such great importance. 



146 WHETHER THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 



CHAPTER X. 

REASON X. THAT IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO ASCERTAIN 

WHETHER THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS, AS TO THE 
CONTROVERSIES OF THE PRESENT DAY, WERE RECEIVED 
BY THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL, OR ONLY BY SOME POR- 
TION OF IT : THIS BEING NECESSARY TO BE KNOWN, 
BEFORE THEIR SENTIMENTS CAN BE ADOPTED. 

Suppose that one of the Fathers, relieving us in this 
difficult or rather impossible business, should tell us, in 
express terms, that what he proposes is the sense and 
opinion of the Church in his time ; yet this would not 
quite extricate us from the doubtful condition we are 
in. For, besides that their words are many times, in 
such cases as these, liable to exception, suppose that it 
were certainly and undoubtedly so ; yet it would con- 
cern us then to examine what that Church was, of 
which he speaks 5 whether it was the Church Universal, 
or only some particular Church ; and whether it were 
that of the whole world, or that of some city, province, 
or country only. 

Now that this is a matter of no small importance is 
evident, because the opinions of the Church Universal 
in points of faith are accounted infallible, and neces- 
sarily true : whereas those of particular Churches are 
not so, but are confessed to be subject to error. So 
that the question being here about the faith, which 
ought not to be grounded upon any thing save what is 
infallibly true, it will concern us to know what the 
judgment of the Church Universal has been ; seeing the 
opinion of no particular Church can do us any service 
in this case. And that this distinction is also other- 
wise very necessary, appears evident by this ; because 
the opinions and customs which have been commonly 



WERE RECEIVED BY THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. 147 

received by the greatest part of Christendom, have not 
always immediately taken place in each particular 
Church; and again, those which have been received in 
certain particular Churches have not been entertained 
by all the rest. Thus we find in history, that the churches 
in Asia Minor kept the feast of Easter upon a different 
day from all the other parts of Christendom : and al- 
though the matter itself seems to be of no very great 
importance, yet nevertheless it caused a great sensation in 
the Church -, Victor bishop of Rome, by reason of this 
little difference, excommunicating all Asia Minor. * 

Now each party here alleged their reasons, and aposto- 
lical tradition also, for what they did ; speaking with 
such great confidence in the justification of their own 
opinion, that on hearing them individually a man would 
really believe that each of their opinions was the very 
sense of the whole Church ; which notwithstanding was 
only the opinion of one portion of it. 

The greatest part of Christendom held the baptism 
of heretics to be good and effectual :f and received all 
those, who, forsaking their heresy, desired to be admitted 
into the communion of the Church, without re-baptizing 
them ; as appears out of St. Cyprian, who confesses that 
this had also been the custom formerly, even in the 
African Churches themselves. Yet notwithstanding Fir- 
milianus, archbishop of Csesarea in Cappadocia, testifies 
that the Churches of Cappadocia had imrnemorially be- 
lieved and practised the contrary. J They had also, in 
his time, so declared and ordained, together with the 
Churches of Galatia and Cilicia, in a full synod, held at 
the city Iconium. About the same time also St. Cyprian 
and the bishop of Afric entered on the same affair, and 
embraced this opinion of rebaptization of heretics. The 
acts of the council held at Carthage are yet extant ; 
where you have 87 bishops, who with one unanimous 
consent established the same. 



* Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 5, c. 23, 24, p. 55, Cod. Grsec. 

f Cypr. ep. 71, et ep. 75, quae est Firmil. 

X Cseterum nos veritati et consuetudinem jungimus : et consuetu- 
dini Romanorum consuetudinem -veritatis opponimus ; ab initio 
hoc tenentes quod a Chnsto et ab Apostolis traditum est. — Firmil. 
ep. ad Cypr. quce est 75 inter ep. Cypr. 

H 2 



14S WHETHER THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

The custom at Rome, in Tertullian's time, was to re- 
ceive into the communion of the Church all fornicators 
and adulterers, after some certain penances which they 
enjoined them. Tertullian, who was a Montanist, ex- 
claimed fearfully against this custom, and wrote a 
book expressly against it j which is also extant among 
his works at this day. Who now, that should read this 
work of his, would not believe that it was the general 
opinion of all Catholics, that such sinners were not to 
be excluded from penance and the communion of the 
Church ? Yet for all this, it is evident, out of a certain 
epistle of St. Cyprian,* that even some of the Catholic 
bishops o*f Africa were of the contrary persuasion : and 
the Jesuit Petavius is further of opinion, that this indul- 
gence was not allowed nor practised in the Churches of 
Spain, till a long time after 5 and that the ancient rigour, 
which excluded for ever such offenders from the com- 
munion of the Church, was in practice among them, 
till the time of Pacianus, bishop of Barcelona, who left 
not any hopes of ecclesiastical absolution, either to ido- 
laters, murderers, or adulterers ; as may be seen in 
his Exhortation to Repentance. t 

In the year of our Lord 364, the council of Laodicea 
ordained, J that none but the canonical books of the Old 
and New Testament should be read in churches, giving 
us moreover a catalogue of the said books, which amount 
in all, in the Old Testament, to the number twenty-two 
only j without making any mention at all of those other 
books which cardinal Perron calls posthumous, namely, 
Ecclesiasticus, the Book of Wisdom, the Maccabees, 
Judith, and Tobit. All the canons of this council were 
afterwards inserted in the code of the Church Universal, 
where you have this very canon also, Num. \6.i ; that is 
as much as to say, they were received as rules of the 
Catholic Church. 

Who would believe now, but that this declaration of 
the canon of the Scriptures was at that time received by 
all the Christian Churches ? And yet, notwithstanding, 

* Cypr. ep. ad Anton. 

f Pacian, Parren ad Peenit t. 3. "Ribl. PP. p. 71. 

f Concil. Laodicean. 59. in Cod. Eccles. Univers. 163. 



WERE RECEIVED BY THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. 14Q 

you have the Churches of Africa meeting together in the 
Synod at Carthage,* about the year of our Lord 397, 
and ordaining quite contrary to the former resolution 
of Laodicea, that among those books which were allowed 
to be read in churches, the Maccabees, Judith, Tobit, 
Ecclesiasticus, and the Book of Wisdom, (which two 
last they also reckon among the books written by Solo- 
mon), should be taken into the number. 

Who knows not the difference there was in the first 
ages of Christianity, between the Eastern and the Wes- 
tern Churches, respecting the fasting on Saturdays ;f 
the Church of Rome maintaining it as lawful, and all 
the rest of the world accounting it unlawful ? Whence it 
was that we had that bold canon passed in the council 
at Constantinople, in Trullo, in these words : " Under- 
standing that in the city of Rome, in the time of the 
holy fast of Lent, they fast on Saturdays, contrary to 
the custom and tradition of the Church 5 it seemeth 
good to this holy council, that in the Romish Church 
they inviolably also observe that canon, which says, 
that whosoever shall be found to fast either upon the 
Lord's day, or upon the Saturday, (excepting only that 
one Saturday) if he be a clergyman, he shall be deposed ; 
but if he be of the laity, he shall be excommunicated :" — 
'E^ei^// fxejJ.udrjKafiev kv rrj Vthfiaiiov 7toXel kv tcliq ayiaig 
ttjq TE(T(japaKO0Tr]Q vr\GTziaig TOig Tavrrjg Gaj3j3acrL vrja- 
revety, wapa rr\v TrapaioQeiGav BKKXrjffLaoTLKrjv aicoXovOiav, 
iSoL,e T7] ayta 2woJw, cJote Kpareiv wu, eVt rrj "Pwfiaiuv 
kKKXrjoria aTrapaaaXzvTug tov Kavova tov XeyovTa, EI Tig 
KXrjpiKog evprjdeiT) ry aytct Kvpiatcr) vrjVTevwv, 77 to ca/JjSa- 
tov, 7rXrjv tov evog Kat [aovov, KadaLpeKrOio' el Se Xciikoq, 
acpopiZeaOio.X 

Who knows not after how many different ways the 
fast of Lent was anciently observed in various Churches, 
an account of which is given by Irenaeus, in that pious 
epistle of his which he wrote to Victor 5 part whereof 
Eusebius inserts in his Ecclesiastical History. § Who 

* Concil. Carthag. iii. can. 47. 

t Vid. Petav. inEpiph. p. 359. 

j Can. Synod. Quininsext. (Ian. lv. 

§ Iren. ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 5. cap. 26. 



150 WHETHER THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

knows not also, that the opinions and expressions of the 
Greek Church, on Free-will and Predestination, are 
very different from what the Church believed and taught 
in St. Augustin's time, and afterwards ? 

As to the Discipline of the Church, only hear Anasta- 
sius Bibliothecarius, upon the 6th Canon of the 7th 
General Council, which enjoins all Metropolitans to hold 
provincial synods once a year : " Neither let it at all 
trouble thee (says he) that we have not this decree ; 
seeing that there are some others found among the 
canons, whose authority nevertheless we admit of. For 
some of them are in force, and are observed in the 
Greek Church ; and others again in certain other pro- 
vinces only. As for example, the 16th and 17th canons 
of the council of Laodicea are observed only among 
the Greeks ; and the 6th and the 8th canons of the 
council of Africa are received by none but the Afri- 
cans."* 

I could here produce various other examples ; but 
these may suffice to shew that the opinions and customs 
which have been received in one part of the Church, 
have not always been entertained in all the rest. Whence 
it evidently follows that all that is acknowledged as the 
opinion or observation of the Church, ought not there- 
fore at once to pass for a universal law. 

The Protestant alleges, for justifying his canon of 
the Scriptures, the council of Laodicea, before men- 
tioned. You answer him perhaps that this indeed 
was the opinion of the Churches ; but it was only of 
some particular Churches. I shall not here enter into 
an examination, whether this answer be well grounded 
or not : it is sufficient for me that I can then safely con- 
clude from hence, that according to this account, before 
you can make use of any opinion or testimony out of 



* Nee te moveat, si hanc definitionem minime noshabemus: cum 
et earum nonnullas, quas inter canones habemus, in auctoritatem 
non recipiamus; sicut quasdam ex eonciliis. Aliae namque apud 
(inecos tantum, aliae veto apud certas tantum provinciasin observan- 
tiain Kcolesiarum assumuntur : sicut Laodicensis concilii 16 et 17 
regulae apud Graecos tantum servantur : et Africani concilii 6 et 8 
eapitula, quee nulla provincia scrvare, nisi Africana, dignoscitur — 
sJnastas. Biblioth. nd Can. 6, Cone. 7 Getter* 



WERE RECEIVED BY THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. 151 

any of the Fathers, it is necessary that you first make 
it appear, not only that it was the opinion of the Church 
at that time; but you must further also clearly demon- 
strate to us, what Church's opinion it was -, whether of 
the Church universal, or else of some particular Church 
only. It is objected against the Protestants, that Epi- 
phanius* testifies that the Church admitted not into the 
higher orders of the ministry, any save those that were 
virgins, or professed continency. Now to make good 
this allegation, it is necessary that it be first proved, 
that the Church he there speaks of was the Church 
Universal. For (the Protestant will reply) as Laodicea 
has had, it seems, a particular opinion on the canon of 
the Scriptures ; possibly also Cyprus may in like man- 
ner have had its particular resolutions as to the ordina- 
tion of the clergy. The same may be said of the greatest 
part of those other allegations and opinions of the an- 
cient Church. 

Now how difficult a business it will be to clear these 
matters, which are so full of perplexity ; and to distin- 
guish the writings of antiquity at this great distance of 
time, separating that which was public from what was 
particular, and that which was provincial from w T hat was 
national, and w T hat was national from that which was 
universal, — any man may be able to imagine ; but none 
can thoroughly understand, except he who has made the 
trial. Only conceive to yourselves a city, that has lain 
in ruins a thousand years, nothing of which remains 
but the ruins of houses, lying all along confusedly here 
and there ; all the rest being covered over with thorns 
and bushes. Imagine then that you have met with one 
that will undertake to shew you precisely where the 
public buildings of the city stood, and where the private 
ones : which were the stones that belonged to the one, 
and which belonged to the other : and, in a word, who will 
in these confused heaps, where the whole lies all toge- 
ther, separate for you, notwithstanding, the one from 
the other. The very same task in a manner does he 
undertake, who thus endeavours truly and precisely to 
distinguish the opinions of the ancient Church. 

* Epipha. Haer. 59, torn. 1. 



152 WHETHER THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

This antiquity is now of eleven or twelve hundred 
years' standing : and the ruins of it are now only left 
us in the books of the writers of that period ; which 
have indeed met with none of the best treatment in 
their passage through the several ages down to our 
time; as we have before shewn. How then can we 
entertain the least hope that, amidst this so great con- 
fusion, we should be able yet to distinguish the remains, 
and to tell which of them honoured the public temple, 
and which went to the furnishing of private chapels 
only ? especially considering that the private ones have 
each of them ambitiously endeavoured to make their 
own pass for public. For where is the province, or the 
city, or the doctor, that has not boasted of his own 
opinions and observations as apostolical ? and not used 
his utmost endeavours to gain them the repute of being 
universal? St. Hierome allows every particular pro- 
vince full liberty to do herein as it pleases. "Let 
every province (says he) abound in its own sense, 
and hold the ordinances of their ancestors as apostolical 
laws."* 

It is true indeed, that Hierome speaks in this place 
only of certain observations of things which are in 
themselves indifferent. But yet, that which he has per- 
mitted them in these matters, they have practised in all 
others. I shall not here trouble myself to produce any 
other reasons, to prove the difficulty of this inquiry, be- 
cause 1 should then be forced to repeat a great part of 
that which has been already noticed. 

If it be a very difficult matter to attain to any certain 
knowledge what the sense of the writings of the Fathers 
is, as we have proved before, how much more difficult 
a thing will it be, to discover whether their opinions 
were those of the particular Churches wherein they lived, 
or else were the opinions of the Church Universal in 
their age 3 the same things which cause obscurity in 
the one having as much or rather more reason for doing 
the like in the other. And if you would fully understand 
how painful an undertaking this is, only read the dispu- 

* Unaqoseque provincia ahundct in sensu suo, et praecepta ma- 
jorum leg* 's apostolical arbitretur. — Hieron* cp. 28, ad Lucinum. 






WERE RECEIVED BY THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. 153 

tations of the learned of both parties on this point ; 
where you will meet with so many doubts and contra- 
dictions, and such diversity of opinions, that you will 
easily conclude, that this is one of the greatest difficul- 
ties to be met with throughout the whole study of an- 
tiquity. 



h 5 



In i IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 



CHAPTER XI. 

REASON XI. THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW EX- 
ACTLY WHAT HAS BEEN THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT 
CHURCH, EITHER UNIVERSAL OR PARTICULAR, AS 
TO ANY OF THOSE POINTS WHICH ARE AT THIS DAY 
CONTROVERTED AMONGST US. 

Betore we proceed to the Second Part of this treatise, 
it may not be irrelevant to give the reader this last ad- 
vice, and let him know that, though all these difficulties 
before represented were removed, it would still be 
impossible for us to know certainly, out of the Fathers, 
what the judgment of the whole ancient Church, whe- 
ther the Church Universal, or only a considerable por- 
tion of it, has been, as regards the differences which are 
now agitated in religion. 

Now that we may be able to make the truth of this 
proposition appear, it is necessary that we should first 
of all explain the terms. 

We understand commonly by the Church, (especially 
in these disputations) either all those persons in general 
who profess themselves to be of the said Church, of 
what condition or quality soever they be ; or else, in a 
stricter sense, the collective body of all those who are 
set over, and who are representatives of the Church ; 
that is to say. the Clergy. So that whether you speak 
of the Church Universal, or of some particular Church — 
as, for example, that of Spain, or of Carthage — this term 
may be taken in either of these two senses. By the 
Church Universal we understand either all those persons 
in general, who live in the communion of the Christian 
Church, whether they be of the laity or of ihe clergy ; 
or else those persons only who are Ecclesiastici, or 
church-men, as we now call them. For in the primitive 
times, all Christians that lived in the communion of the 
Catholics were called EccledasticL In like manner, by 



THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 155 

the Church of Carthage is meant, either generally, all the 
Faithful that live in the particular communion of the 
Christian Church of Carthage 5 or else particularly, 
and in a stricter sense, the bishop of Carthage, with his 
whole clergy. 

Now I do not believe that there is any man, but will 
easily grant me, that if we take the Church in the first 
sense, it is impossible to know, by way of testimony 
given of the same, what the sense and judgment of it 
have been in each distinct age, as to all the points of the 
Christian religion. We may indeed collect, by way of 
discourse, what has been the belief of the true members 
of the Church. For there being some certain articles, 
the belief of which is necessarily requisite for the ren- 
dering a man such; whosoever rightly understands 
which these articles are, may certainly conclude that 
the true Church, whether universal or particular, has 
believed the same. But now, in the first place, this 
does not extend to all the points of the Christian religion, 
but only to those which are necessary : besides which 
there are various others, concerning which we may have 
not only different but even contrary judgments ; and yet 
not thereby hazard the loss either of the communion of 
the Church, or of our inheritance of everlasting salva- 
tion. But this reasoning applies only to those who 
are the true members of the Church. As for those 
who make but an outward profession of the truth, it 
being not at all necessary that they should be saved, 
there is in like manner no more necessity for their em- 
bracing those beliefs which are requisite for that end. 
They may, under this mask, hide all kind of opinions, 
however impious they are. Lastly, that which makes 
most for our purpose is, that this knowledge is acquired 
by discourse -, whereas we speak here of such a knowledge 
as is collected by the hearing of several witnesses, who 
give in their testimonies as to the thing which we would 
ascertain. Now the Fathers having written with a pur- 
pose of informing us, not what each particular man 
believed in their time, but rather what they thought fit 
that all men should have believed, we must needs con- 
clude that certainly they have not told us all that they 
knew on this particular. And therefore partly their 
charity and partly their prudence may have caused them 



156 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 

to pass by in silence all such opinions, either of whole 
companies, or of particular persons, as they conceived 
t o be not so consonant to the truth. But supposing 
that they had not any of these considerations, and that 
they had taken upon them to give us a just account, 
each man of the opinions of his particular church 
wherein he lived j it is evident, however, that they could 
never have been able to have attained to the end of 
their design. For how is it possible that they should 
have been able to have learnt what the opinion of every 
single person was, amongst so vast a multitude, which 
consisted of so many several persons, who were of such 
different capacities and dispositions ? Who will believe 
that St. Cyprian, for example, knew all the several 
opinions of each particular person in his diocese, so as 
to be able to give us an account of the same ? who can 
imagine, but that among such a multitude of people as 
lived in the communion of his church, there must needs 
have been very many who differed in opinion from him, 
on divers points of religion ? Even at this very day, 
that we may not trouble ourselves to look so high, we 
see by experience, that there is scarcely that parish to 
be found, however small, where there are not particular 
persons that maintain, in many points of religion, 
opinions different from those of their minister. But if 
we take a whole diocese together, and pass by all those 
who trouble themselves not at all with the difference of 
opinions in religion, whether it be by reason of their 
want of years, or their weakness of judgment, or their 
malice j and take notice only of the rest, dividing them 
according to the difference of their opinions ; I am per- 
suaded that that part which shall agree in all points 
with the bishop of that diocese, will many times be found 
to be the least. Let a bishop preach or write what he 
will, on the points which are now in controversy, he 
will scarcely represent unto you the opinions of half 
the people of his diocese. 

ISow we must conceive that the temper of the world 
of old was no other than what it is at this present day ; 
and therefore, for this very reason, the liberty of em- 
bracing what opinions a man pleased was much greater 
then than it is now ; insomuch as the Church of Rome 
did not exercise its power then throughout Christendom 



THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 15? 

so absolutely as it does now-a-days :* neither did the 
pastors or the princes use that severity and rigour 
which is now everywhere practised in our times, for the 
repressing this diversity of opinions. We must there- 
fore necessarily believe, that the opinions of the faithful 
were in those days altogether as different, if not much 
more, than they are now. Whence it will also follow, 
that even the doctors themselves, who lived in those 
times, could not know all the different opinions of men, 
much less could they represent them to us in their 
writings. 

We shall not dwell any longer upon what no man 
can deny ; but shall rather proceed to the consideration 
of that which every one no doubt will be here ready to 
retort on us, respecting this particular ; namely, that it 
is not necessary that we should know the opinions, in 
points of religion, of all individual persons, which are 
almost infinite in number, and for the most part very 
ill grounded and uncertain : but that it is sufficient, if 
we know what the belief has been of the pastors, and 
those who have been set over the Church : that is to 
say, of the Church taken in the latter sense. Yet I 
confess I do not see that this rule is so absolutely right, 
that we ought to adhere to it. For if we are to take 
the Church for the rule and foundation of our faith (as 
the authors of this reply pretend we ought to do), the 
people, in my judgment, ought not then to be here 
excluded and passed by, as being of no consideration. 
1 confess, the opinions of particular persons are very 
different, one from the other ; and the knowledge of 
some of them is very confined, and sometimes none at 
all. But yet possibly this reason may chance to exclude 
even a good part of the clergy also from the authority 
to which they lay claim in this particular 5 as it cannot 
be denied that both ignorance and malice have oftentimes 
as great a share here, proportionably as they have among 
the very people themselves. Who sees not, that if we 
must have regard to the capacity of men, there are 
sometimes found, even among the plain ordinary sort 
of Christians in a Church, those that are more consider- 

* That is, at the commencement of the sixteenth century.— Ed, 






158 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 



able, both for their learning and piety, than the pastors 
themselves ? One of those Fathers, of whom we now 
discourse, has informed us, iS That many times have 
the clergy erred; the bishop has wavered in his opinion ; 
the rich men have adhered in their judgment to the 
earthly princes of the world ; meanwhile the people alone 
preserved the faith entire."* 

Seeing therefore that it may sometimes happen, and 
that it has also many times happened, that the clergy 
have held erroneous opinions, while the people only 
held the true, it is very evident, in my judgment, that 
the opinion of the people in these cases ought not wholly 
to be neglected. Truly St. Cyprian tells us in divers 
places, that the Church in his time had the people in 
very great esteem ; no business of any importance being 
then transacted without communicating the same to 
the people ; as may be seen in the epistles of this Father : 
insomuch that " The greatest part of the people also 
were present at the council of Carthage,"! where the 
question on the baptism of heretics was debated ; 
whereof we have already spoken somewhat a little be- 
fore. But because this point is still controverted, I 
shall pass it over this time. Let us therefore grant, 
(since our adversaries will needs have it so,) that it is 
sufficient in this case to know what the belief was of the 
Church, taken in the later and stricter sense ; that is 
to say, of the clergy : for even this way it is evident 
enough that it is a very hard, if not an impossible 
thing, truly to discover what it has been in each distinct 
age. For there is no less diversity of opinion among 
the clergy, than there is among the people ; and many 
times too there is much more : being conversant in 
books usually reducing things into nicer subtilties, and 
giving occasion for raising divers opinions on the same. 

Who is he that will undertake to give us an account 
what the opinion is of all the clergy of one city only 
(I do not say of a kingdom, or of all Christendom) con- 

* Pleruraque clerus erravit ; sacerdotum nutavit sententia : divites 
cum BtBCuli istius terreno rege senserunt ; populus fidem propriam 
resenravit — Ambros, Ser. 17, t. 4, p 725 

f Prajsente etiam plebis maxima parte. — Cypr. in Cone. Carthag. 
p. 397. 



THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 159 

cerning all the articles of religion ? Who would be able 
to perform this, if he should undertake it ? Never was 
there more exact care taken, for the conservation of 
uniformity in judgment among Christians, than is now 
at this day ; when there is use made, not only of the 
censures and thunderbolts of the Church, but even also 
of the fire and the sword of the secular powers. Yet 
notwithstanding all this, how many ecclesiastical persons 
are there to be found, even in those very places where 
these rigorous measures are observed with the greatest 
strictness, even at Rome itself, and as it were in the 
Pope's own bosom, who differ very much in judgment 
respecting points of religion, both from their equals and 
from their superiors ? In France, where, by the blessing 
of God, the liberty of conscience is much greater than 
in other places, it would be a wonder, if, where four 
clergymen of the more learned and polite sort had met 
together, two of them should not, upon some point or 
other of the faith, differ in judgment from the main 
body of their Church. 

Here I have to entreat all those who follow Cassander 
in great numbers (who adore the monuments of the Fa- 
thers, and take whatsoever they find in him for the 
general sense of the ancient Christians,) only to turn their 
eyes back a little upon themselves, and to consider how 
many opinions they themselves hold, which are not only 
different, but even quite contrary to the Church, in the 
communion of which they live, and of which they pro- 
fess themselves to be members, and by which indeed 
they subsist. The difference is here so great, that it 
seems to be, as it were, one state within another state, 
and one church within another Church. Yet notwith- 
standing, when any of the doctors of that party to which 
they adhere, deliver unto us, either in their definitions, 
or in their sermons, or in their books, the common sense 
and judgment of their Church, this intermixture of opi- 
nions is quite laid aside, and appears not at all. They 
speak only of the opinions of others, passing by those 
of Cassander, which are contrary to them, in silence, as 
if they did not at all concern the Church of Rome. Yet it 
is very well known, even to us who live at this very day, 
that they are favoured and maintained by very many 



160 



IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 



of the most eminent persons of the Roman clergy. And 
if this senseless sect, who forsooth think themselves 
much more refined in their opinions than the rest of the 
body whereof they are a part, should chance in time 
either to fall of itself, or be suppressed by force, the 
memory of them would so utterly come to nothing, that 
posterity would know nothing of their doctrines, ex- 
cept by conjecture. Every one will then suppose that 
the Church of Rome at this time held precisely to the 
doctrine and opinions that he reads in the decrees of 
Trent, and in other similar books : and yet notwith- 
standing we both know and see that among those very 
persons which have been anointed, consecrated, and pre- 
ferred also by the said Church, there is a party that 
dissents from it in judgment on divers important articles 
of faith. We may therefore conclude that the ancient 
Church had also its Cassanders, and very many even 
among the clergy itself, who held opinions different 
from those which were the common belief of the Church, 
and which it hath at length by little and little sunk, as 
it were, under water, and wholly swallowed up ; so that 
now there is not any trace of them left. 

Christianity was either different in the ancient times 
from what it is now, or else it was the same. If it was 
different, it is then a piece of mere sophistry, to endea- 
vour to make it seem to be the same ; and a very great 
abuse to produce unto us, for this purpose, so many 
different testimonies from antiquity. If it were the 
same, it must then without all doubt have produced the 
same accidents, and have sow T n the same seeds of diver- 
sity of opinion, in the spirits of its clergy. Those 
opinions and observations, which now give offence to 
the Cassandrists, would then also have offended some 
persons or other, that were endued with the like mode- 
ration. For we are not to conceive but that those 
first ages of Christianity brought forth spirits that 
were as much, and more refined and delicate, than ours 
have done. 

But that we may insist upon this particular no longer, 
it is sufficient for me, that I have thus clearly made it 
appear, that in the ancient Church the whole clergy of 



THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHTJRCH. 161 

a city, or of a nation, much less of the whole world, 
had not necessarily one* and the same sense and opinion 
on points of religion. So that it will follow from 
hence, that we cannot know with certainty, whether 
those opinions with which we meet in the Fathers, 
were received or not by all and each of the pas- 
tors of the Church at that time. All that you can 
gather thence is but this at the most ; that they them- 
selves, and some others perhaps of the most eminent 
amongst them (if you please), maintained such or such 
opinions : in like manner, as that which Bellarmine 
and others have written on the Sacrament of the Eu- 
charist, w ill inform posterity, that these men, and many 
others of our time, held these opinions in the Church 
of Rome. But as those who shall conclude, from the 
books of these authors, that there is at this day no other 
opinion maintained among the clergy themselves of the 
Church of Rome, on this particular, would very much 
mislead themselves ; so is it much to be feared that we 
in like manner deceive ourselves, when, from what we 
find in two or three of the Fathers, we conclude that 
there was at that time no other opinion held in the Chris- 
tian Church on those points whereof they treat, except 
that which they have delivered. It is a very hazardous 
business to take eight or ten men, however holy and 
learned they may have been, as sureties for all doctors 
of the Church Universal that lived in their age. 
This is too little security for so great a sum. 

Now, there are two things which may be objected 
against that which we have before delivered. The first 
is, that if there had been in antiquity any other opinions 
on thepointsnowin debate, which had been different from 
those we now T meet with in the books, either of all the 
Fathers, or at least of some few of them, they would 
then both have mentioned and also refuted them. But 
w r e have already heretofore answered this objection, by 
saying that the Fathers forbare to speak any thing 
of this diversity of opinion, partly out of prudence, 
lest otherwise they might have provoked the authors of 
the said opinions, which were contrary to their own ; 
and so might increase the difference, instead of ap- 



162 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 

peasing it ; and partly also out of charity -, mildly 
bearing with that which they accounted not a whit 
dangerous. 

I only speak here of those differences in opinions which 
they knew of: for there might be a great number of 
others of which they knew not. Who can oblige you to 
believe that a monk, for example, that had retired into a 
corner, and as it were forsaken the world, professing 
only to instruct a small number of men and women in 
the rules of devotion, must needs have known what the 
opinions in points of religion of all the prelates of his 
age were ? Who will pass his word unto us in his behalf, 
that he does not sometimes reprove that in some men 
which yet the Church allowed in an infinite number of 
others ? Who will warrant us that all Christendom in 
his time embraced all his opinions, and had no other of 
their own ? 

Possevine, answering an objection relative to the 
works of Dionysius the Areopagite, which St. Hierome 
has made no mention of, says, that it is no great wonder 
that a man who lay hid in a corner of the w T orld should 
not have seen this book, which the Arians endeavoured 
to suppress.* May not a man with as much reason say, 
that it is no great wonder if St. Hierome or Epiphanius, 
or any other authors who were all of them engaged with 
their particular charges and employments, did not know 
of some opinions of the prelates of their age ; or that 
either their modesty, or their charity, or the little elo- 
quence and repute they had abroad, might have made 
them conceal the same ? 

The other objection is drawn from the fact that these 
doctors of the ancient church, who held some opinions 
different from those which we read at this day in the 
Fathers, did not publish them at all. But I answer first 
of all, that every man is not able to do so. In the next 
place, those who were able were not always willing. Vari- 
ous other considerations may perhaps also have hindered 
them from so doing ; and if they are wise and pious 
men, they are never moved till the necessity arises. 
And hence it is, that oftentimes those opinions which 

* Possevine in Appar. 



THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 163 

have less truth in them do yet prevail ; because pru- 
dence, which maintains the true opinion, is mild and 
patient : whereas rashness, which defends the false, is 
of a fro ward, eager, and ambitious nature. 

Now let us but imagine how many of the evidences of 
this diversity of opinion may have been lost by the 
various ways before represented, having been devoured 
by time, or suppressed by malicious men j for fear they 
should let the world see the traces of the truth which 
they would have concealed. But that I may not be 
thought to adduce bare conjectures without any proof, 
I shall produce some examples also for the confirming 
and elucidating my assertions. 

Epiphanius maintains against Arius,* whom he ranks 
among his Haeresiarchae, or arch-Heretics, that a bi- 
shop, according to the Apostle St. Paul, and the original 
institution of the office itself, is more than a priest : 
and this he endeavours to prove in many words, answer- 
ing all the objections that are made to the contrary. If 
you only read the passage, I am confident that when 
you have done, you would not hesitate to swear that 
what he hath there delivered, was the general opinion of 
all the doctors of the Church ; it being very unlikely, 
that so great and so renowned a prelate would so posi- 
tively have denied the opinion which he disputed against, 
if any one of his own familiar friends had also maintained 
the same. Yet for all this, St, Hierome, who was 
one of the principal lights of our western Church, and 
who lived at the same time with Epiphanius, who was 
his intimate friend, and a great admirer of his piety, 
says expressly, " that among the ancients bishops and 
priests were the same ; the one being a name of dignity, 
and the other of age."t That it may not be thought 
that this fell from him in discourse only, he there under- 
takes to prove the same at large, alleging several pas- 
sages of Scripture on this particular; J and he also re- 

* Eph. in Panar. Hser. 75. 

f Quanquam apud veteres iidem episcopi et presbyteri fuerint : 
quia iilud nomen dignitatis est, hoc aetatis — (Hieron. Ep. 83. ad 
Ocean, torn. 2.) — Cum Apostolus perspicue doceat eosdem esse pres- 
byteros, quos et episcopos, &c. — Id. ep. 85. ad Evagr. torn. 2. 

{ Id. Com. in Ag. torn. 5. p. 512. Et Com. in. Tit. torn. 6, 
p. 443. 



164 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 

peats the same thing, in two or three several places of 
his work ; whereby it evidently appears that even posi- 
tions which have been quite contradictory to the opinions 
which have been delivered and maintained by some of the 
Fathers, and proposed in whatever terms, have not- 
withstanding been sometimes either maintained, or at 
least tolerated, by some others of no less authority. 

St. Hierome himself has severely criticised Ruffinus, 
and condemned many of his opinions as most pernicious 
and deadly ; yet notwithstanding we do not any where 
find that he was ever accounted a heretic by the rest of 
the Fathers. But we shall have occasion hereafter to 
consider more at large similar examples ; and shall only 
at present observe, that if those books of St. Hierome, 
which we mentioned a little before, should chance to 
have been lost, every man would then assuredly have 
concluded with Epiphanius, that no doctor of the an- 
cient Church ever held, that a bishop and a priest were 
one and the same thing in its institution. 

Who now, after all this, will assure us, that among so 
many other opinions as have been rejected here and 
there by the Fathers, and that too in as plain terms as 
those of Epiphanius, none of them have ever been de- 
fended by some of the learned of those times ? Or, is 
it not possible, that they may have held them, though 
they did not write in defence of the same ? Or may 
they not perhaps have written also in defence of them, 
and their books have been since lost ? How small is 
the number of those in the Church, who had the ability, 
or at least the will, to write ? And how much smaller 
is the number of those whose writings have been able 
to secure themselves against either the injury of time or 
the malice of men. 

It is objected against the Protestants, as we have ob- 
served before, that St. Hierome commends and main- 
tains the adoration of relics : but yet he himself testi- 
fies, that there were some bishops, who defended 
Vigilantius, who held the contrary opinion ; whom he, 
according to his ordinary rhetoric, calls iC his comforts 
in wickedness/'* 

* Proh ! nefas, episcopos sui sceleris dicitur habere consortes. — 
Ilicr. in Vigil. 2, p. 159. 



THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. l6o 

Who knows now what these bishops were, and 
whether they deserved any such usage at St. Hie- 
rome's hands or no ? For the expressions which he 
uses against them, and against their opinions, are so full 
of gall and enmity, that they utterly take away all cre- 
dit from his testimony. But we have insisted long 
enough upon this particular, and shall therefore forbear 
to instance any further in others. 

As it is therefore impossible to discover exactly, out of 
the Fathers, what have been the sense and judgment of 
the ancient Church, — whether taken universally or par- 
ticularly, or whether the Church is taken for the whole 
body of believers, or for the prelates and inferior clergy 
only, — I shall here conclude as heretofore, that the 
writings of the ancients are altogether insufficient for 
proving the truth of any of those points which are 
at this day controverted amongst us. 



BOOK THE SECOND. 

THE FATHERS ARE NOT OF SUFFICIENT AUTHORITY 
FOR DECIDING CONTROVERSIES IN RELIGION. 



CHAPTER I. 

REASON I. THAT THE TESTIMONIES GIVEN BY THE 

FATHERS, ON THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCH, ARE 
NOT ALWAYS TRUE AND CERTAIN. 

We have before shewn how difficult it is to discover 
what the sense of the Fathers has been, as respects the 
points at this day controverted in religion : owing to 
the small number of books of the Fathers of the first 
centuries that have been translated ; and those which we 
have, moreover, treating of things of a very different 
nature from our present disputes ; and of which besides 
we cannot be very well assured, by reason of the many 
forgeries and monstrous corruptions, which they have 
for so long a time been subject to ; also by reason of 
their obscurity and ambiguity in their expressions ; and 
their often representing to us numerous opinions rather 
of others than of their authors : besides those imper- 
fections which are found in them ; as for instance their 
not informing us in what degree of faith we are to 
hold each particular point of doctrine -, and their leaving 
us in doubt, whether what they teach be the judgment 
of the Church, or their own private opinion : and 



168 THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS 

whether, if it be the judgment of the Church, it be of 
the Church Universal, or of some particular Church 
only. 

Now the least of these objections is sufficient to ren- 
der their testimony invalid : and that this testimony 
may be of force, it is necessary that it be clearly and 
evidently free from all these defects ; forasmuch as the 
question is here touching the Christian faith, which 
ought to be grounded on nothing but what is sure and 
certain. Whosoever therefore would make use of any 
passage out of a Father, he is bound first to make it 
appear that the author, out of whom he cites the said 
passage, lived and wrote in the first ages of Christianity; 
and moreover, that the said person is well known to be 
the author of the book out of which the passage is 
quoted : and also that the passage cited is genuine, and 
no way corrupted nor altered : and likewise, that the 
sense which he gives of it, is the true genuine. sense of 
the passage ; and that it was the opinion of the author, 
when he had arrived at ripeness of judgment, and which 
he changed not, or retracted afterwards. He must also 
make it appear in what degree he held it ; and whether 
he maintained it as his own private opinion only, or as 
the opinion of the Church : and lastly, whether it was 
the opinion of the Church Universal, or of some par- 
ticular Church only : which inquiry is of such vast 
and almost infinite labour, that it makes me very much 
doubt whether or not we can be ever able to attain a full 
and certain assurance what the positive sense of the 
ancients has been, on the whole body of controversies 
now debated in this age. Hence therefore our principal 
question seems to be decided ; whether adducing the 
Fathers be a sufficient and proper means for demon- 
strating the truth of all those articles which are at this 
day maintained by the Church of Rome, and rejected by 
the Protestants. For who does not now see that this kind 
of proof hath as much or more difficulty in it than the 
question itself? and that such testimonies are as ob- 
scure as the controverted opinions themselves. Not- 
withstanding, that we may not be thought too hasty, 
and upon too light grounds to reject this way of pro- 
ceeding, we will pass by all the obscurity that is found, 



NOT ALWAYS TRUE AND CERTAIN. 169 

as regards the opinions of the ancients -, and supposing 
it to be no difficult matter to discover what the opinion 
and sense of the Fathers have been on the aforesaid 
points, we will now, in this Second Book, consider 
whether or not their authority be such, as that we 
ought or may, without further examination, believe, on 
their authority, what we know to a certainty was their 
belief, and to hold it in the same degree as they did. 

There are two sorts of sentiments to be observed in 
the writings of the Fathers : in the one you have them 
speaking only as witnesses, and testifying what the be- 
lief of the Church was in their time : in the other, they 
propose to you, like doctors, their own private opinions. 
Now there is a world of difference betwixt these two 
things 5 for in a witness, there is required only fulness 
and truth ; but in a doctor, learning and knowledge. 
The one persuadeth us by the opinion we have of his 
veracity ; the other, by the strength of his arguments. 
The Fathers are witnesses only when they barely tell us 
that the Church in their times held such or such opi- 
nions : and they are doctors, when, mounting as it were 
the dictatorial chair, they propose unto us their own 
opinions ; making them good either according to Scrip- 
ture or agreeably to reason. 

Now as it concerns the testimonies they give on the 
faith held by the Church in their time, I know not 
whether we ought to receive all they bring for certain 
truths or not : but of this I am sure, that though they 
should deserve to be received by us for such, yet never- 
theless would they answer little purpose as to the busi- 
ness now in hand. The reason which induces me to 
doubt of the former of these, is, because I observe that 
those very men, who are the greatest admirers of the 
Fathers, do yet confess, that although they err very 
little, or not at all, in matter of right, yet nevertheless 
they often err, and have their failings, in matter of 
fact : because right is a universal thing, which is every 
way uniform, and all of one kind ; whereas matter of 
fact is a thing which is mixed, and as it were enchased 
with divers particular circumstances, which may very 
easily escape the knowledge of, or at least be not so 
rightly understood by, the most clear and penetrating 

i 



1/0 THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS 

minds. Now the condition of the Church's belief in 
every particular age, is matter of fact and not of right -, 
a point of history, and not an article of faith : so that 
it follows hence, that possibly the Fathers may have 
erred in giving us an account hereof j and that there- 
fore their testimonies in such cases ought not to be re- 
ceived by us as infallibly true ; neither yet may we be 
thought hereby to accuse the Fathers of falsehood. 
For how often do the most honest persons innocently 
testify to such things as they thought they had seen, 
which it afterwards appears that they saw not at all ? 
for goodness renders not men infallible. The Fathers 
therefore being but men, might both be deceived them- 
selves in such things, and might consequently also 
deceive those who have confided in them, though inno- 
cently, and without any design of doing so. But be- 
sides all this, it is very evident that they have not been 
wholly free from passion either : and there is no man 
but knows that passion very often disguises' things, 
and makes them appear, even to the most honest men, 
much otherwise than they are : insomuch that some- 
times they are affectionately carried away with one 
opinion, and do as much abhor another. This secret 
passion might easily make them believe that the Church 
held that opinion with which they themselves were most 
captivated ; and that it rejected that which they them- 
selves disliked, especially if there were but the least 
appearance or shadow of reason to incline them to this 
belief. For men are very easily persuaded to believe 
what they desire. 

I conceive we may here adduce the testimony of St. 
Hierome, where he affirms, " That the Churches of 
Christ held that the souls of men were immediately 
created by God, at the instant of their entrance into the 
body."* And yet, notwithstanding that doubt, which 
St. Augustin was in, in this particular, and his evidently 
inclining to the contrary opinion $ which was, that the 

* Omne deinceps humanum genus quibus animarum censetur exor- 
diis ? utrum ex traduce, juxta bruta animalia, &c. ; an rationabiles 
creators desiderio corporum, &c. ; an certe, cjuod ecclesiasticum est, 
quotidie Deus fabricetur animas : cujus velle tecisse est, et conditor 
tsic BOnceasat? — llicr. cp. 61. dc Error. Jo. Hier. 



NOT ALWAYS TRUE AND CERTAIN. 171 

soul was propagated together with the body, and de- 
scended from the Father to the Son ; this doubt, I say, 
manifestly proves that the Church had not at that time 
embraced or determined on the former of these opi- 
nions ; it being utterly improbable, that so modest a 
man as St. Augustin would have rejected the general 
opinion of the Church, and have taken up a particular 
fancy of his own. But the feeling wherewith St. Hierome 
was at that time carried away against Ruffinus, a great 
part of the learned men of his time being also of 
the same opinion, easily brought him to a belief that it 
was the common judgment and opinion of the whole 
Christian Church.* From the same root also sprang 
that error of John bishop of Thessalonica, (if at 
least it be an error) who affirmed, " That the opi- 
nion of the Church was, that Angels are not wholly 
incorporeal and invisible ; but that they have bodies, 
though of a very rare and thin substance ; not much 
unlike those of the fire or the air :" — Noepovg [izv avrovg 
?/ KaOoXiKrj iiac\ri<Tia ytvuxriceiy ov \xr\v acw/zarove. Travrr} Kat 
aoparovg, XeirrotTOffxaTovc Se /ecu aepwfieie, 77 7ruj0w^£tc.f 
For those who published the general councils of Rome 
conceive this to have been his own private opinion only. X 
And if so (neither shall we need at present to examine 
the truth of this their conceit), you then plainly see, 
that the affection this author bore to his own opinion 
carried him so far away, as to make him father upon 
the whole Church what was indeed but his own particu- 
lar opinion : though otherwise he was a man who was 
highly esteemed by the 7th council ;§ which not only 
cites him among the Fathers, but honours him also with 
the title of a Father. 

Epiphanius must also be excused in the same man- 
ner, where he assures us that the Church held by 
apostolical tradition the custom which it had of meeting 

* Miraris si contra te fratrum scandala concitentur ; cum id 
nescire te jures, quod Christi Eeclesise se scire fatentur ? — Id. Apol. 
2. contra lit iff. 

+ Joan. Thessal. in Concil. 7, Act. 

{ Loquitur ex propria sententia. — Ibid, in Marg. 

§ Concil. 7, Act. 5. 

i 2 



1/2 THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS 

together thrice a week, for the celebration of the holy- 
Eucharist ; but which Petavius makes appear not to have 
been of apostolical institution.* 

The mistakes of the Venerable Bede, noted and cen- 
sured elsewere by Petavius,f are of the same nature also : 
" The belief of the Church, if I mistake not (says he), is, 
that our Saviour Christ lived in the flesh thirty-three 
years, or thereabouts, till the time of the passion :" and 
he says moreover, " That the Church of Rome testifies 
that this is its belief, by the marks which they yearly set 
upon their tapers on Good Friday ; whereon they always 
inscribe a number of years, which is less by thirty-three 
than the common sera of the Christians/' He likewise 
says, in the same place, " That it is not lawful for any 
Catholic to doubt whether Jesus Christ suffered on the 
eross the 15th day of the moon, or not." J 

Petavius has proved at large, that both these opinions 
which Bede delivers as the Church's belief, are nothing 
less than what he would have them.§ 

The curious reader may observe many similar traits 
in the writings of the Fathers : but those already no- 
ticed, in my judgment, sufficiently justify the doubt which 
I have offered 5 that we ought not to receive, as cer- 
tain truths, the testimony which the Fathers give, as 
regards the doctrine of the Church in their time. Never- 
theless, that we may not seem to make a breach upon 
the honour and reputation of the Fathers, I say, that 
though we should grant, that all their depositions and 
testimonies in this particular were certainly and un- 
doubtedly true 5 yet notwithstanding they would be of 

* Petavi. in Epiphan. pag. 354. 

t Petav. in Epiphan. p. 11 3. 143. 145. 

\ Habet enim, nisi fallor, ecclesiae fides, Dominum in came paulo 
plus minus quam xxxiii annis, usque ad suae tempora passionis vix- 
isse. Mox ; Sancta si quidem Romana et apostolica ecclesia hanc se 
tidem tenere ; et ipsis testatur indiculis, quae suis in cereis annuatira 
inseribere solet, ubi tempus Dominicce passionis in memoriam populis 
revocans, numerum annorum triginta semper et t rib US annis minorem 
quam abejus incarnatione Dionysius ponit annotat. {Id. ibid.) Nam 
quod Dominua xv Luna, feria vi, crucem ascendent, &c. nulli licet 
dubitare Catholico. — lieda, lib. de. Temp. rat. c. 45. 

§ Petav. in Epiphan. p. 113. 143. 



NOT ALWAYS TRUE AND CERTAIN. 173 

little use to us in our present purpose. For, in the first 
place, there are but very few passages wherein they tes- 
tify plainly, and in direct terms, what the doctrine of the 
Church in their time has been, as regards the points now 
controverted amongst us. This is the business of an 
historian rather than of a doctor of the Church ; whose 
office is to teach, to prove, and to exhort the people 
committed to his charge, and to correct their vices and 
errors ; telling them what they ought to do or believe, 
rather than troubling them with discourses of what is 
done or believed by others. Yet when they do give 
their testimony as to what were the doctrine and disci- 
pline of the Church in their time ; it ought to extend only 
to what was apparently such, and which moreover was 
apparent to themselves also. 

Now, as we have formerly proved, they could not 
possibly know the sense and opinions of every particu- 
lar Christian that lived in their time j nor yet of all the 
pastors and ministers who were set over them : but of 
some particular Christians only. As therefore it is con- 
fessed, even by those very men who have the Church 
in greatest esteem, that the belief of particular Churches 
is not infallible, we may very easily perceive that such tes- 
timonies of the Fathers as these can be of little avail ; 
seeing that they represent unto us such opinions as are 
not always certainly and undoubtedly true, and which 
consequently are so far from confirming and proving 
ours, that they rather stand in need of being examined 
and proved themselves. But suppose that the Church 
of Rome did hold that the beliefs of particular Churches 
were infallible (which however it does not), yet this would 
not at all militate against the Protestants, as they are 
of the contrary opinion. 

Now it is taken for granted on all hands that proofs 
ought to be taken from such things as are confessed 
and acknowledged by your adversary, whom you endea- 
vour to convince ; otherwise you will never be able to 
change him, or induce him to quit his former opinion. 
Seeing therefore that the testimonies of the Fathers, as 
to the state of the faith and ecclesiastical discipline of 
their times, are of this nature : it remains for us now 
to consider their other discourses, wherein they have 



1/4 THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS 

delivered themselves, not as witnesses deposing what 
they had seen, but as doctors instructing us in what 
they believed : and certainly, however holy and able 
they were, it cannot be denied but that they were still 
men ; and consequently were subject to error, especially 
in points of faith, which is a matter so much tran- 
scending human apprehension. The Spirit of God only 
was able to direct their understandings and their pens 
in the truth, and to withhold them from falling into 
any error : in like manner as it directed the holy pro- 
phets and apostles, while they wrote the books of the 
Old and New Testament. Now we cannot be any way 
assured that the Spirit of God was present always with 
them, to enlighten their understandings, and to make 
them see the truth of all those things of which they 
wrote. They pretend not to this themselves, nor yet 
does any one that I know attribute to them this assis- 
tance, unless it be perhaps the author of the " Gloss upon 
the Decrees," who is of opinion that we ought to stand 
to all that the Fathers have written, even to the least 
tittle :* but he is very justly called to account for this, 
by Alphonsus a Castro,f and Melchior Canus,J two 
Spanish doctors. 

Thus, therefore, as we are not bound to believe any 
thing but what is true ; it is most evident that we 
neither may nor ought to believe the opinions of the 
Fathers, till such times as they appear to us to have 
been certainly true. Now we cannot be certainly 
assured of this by their single authority j seeing that 
they were but men who were not always inspired by the 
Holy Spirit from above : and therefore it is necessary 
that we make use of some other guides in this our in- 
quiry 5 namely, either of the Holy Scriptures, or of 
reason, or tradition, or the doctrine of the present 
Church, or of some other means, as they themselves 
have made use of: it hence follows that their bare 
assertions are no sufficient ground for us to build any 



* Hodie jubentur omnia teneri, usque ad ultimum iota. — Gloss, in 
Beer. JJ. 9. c. 3. 

T Alphons. a Castr. 1. 1. advers. Hair. c. 7. 
J Melch. Canus. 1. 7, loc. Theol. c. 3. Num. 4. 



NOT ALWAYS TRUE AND CERTAIN. 175 

of our opinions on ; as they only serve to incline us 
beforehand to the belief of the same; the great opinion 
which we have of them causing us to conclude that 
they would never have embraced such an opinion, except 
it had been true. This manner of argumentation, how- 
ever, is at the best but probable, so long as the persons 
we have here to do with are only men and no more 3 
and in this particular case, where the question is on 
points of faith, it is by no earthly means to be allowed -, 
since that faith is to be grounded, not upon probabili- 
ties, but upon necessary truths. The Fathers are like 
other great masters in this point, and their opinions are 
more or less valid, in proportion to the reason and au- 
thority on which they are grounded : they have, how- 
ever, this advantage, that their very names beget in us 
a readiness and inclination to receive whatever emanates 
from them; while we think it very improbable that 
such excellent men as they were should ever believe 
any thing that was false. 

Thus, in human sciences, the saying of an Aristotle is 
of a far different value from that of any other philoso- 
pher of less account 5 because all men are beforehand 
possessed with an opinion, that this great philosopher 
would not maintain anything that was not consonant to 
reason. But this is prejudice only ; for if, upon better 
examination, it should be found to be otherwise, his 
bare authority would then no longer prevail with us ; 
what he himself had once gallantly said, would then 
here take place, — " That it is a sacred thing always to 
prefer the truth before friendship :" A^oiv ovtoiv 
<pt\oiv, baiov TTporifxav ty\v aXrjdeiav.* 

Let the Fathers therefore, if you please, be the Aris- 
totles in Christian philosophy, and let us have a reve- 
rent esteem of them and their writings as they deserve, 
and not be too rash in concluding that persons so emi- 
nent in learning and sanctity should maintain any erro- 
neous or vain opinions, especially in a matter of such 
great importance : yet notwithstanding are we bound to 
remember, that they were but men, and that their 

* Aristot. in Ethic. 1. 1. c. 6. 



17^ THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS. 

memory, understanding, or judgment, might sometimes 
fail them, and therefore, consequently, that we are to 
examine their writings by those principles from whence 
they draw their conclusions, and not to rest satisfied 
with their bare assertions, until we have discovered them 
to be true. 

If I were to speak of any other persons than of the 
Fathers, I should not add any thing more to what has 
been now said ; sufficient having been, in my judg- 
ment, already adduced, to prove that they are not of 
themselves of sufficient authority to induce us neces- 
sarily to follow their opinions. But seeing that the 
question is relative to those great names, who are so 
highly honoured in the Church ; in order that no man 
may accuse us of endeavouring to rob them of any of 
the respect which is due to them, I conceive it neces- 
sary to examine this matter a little more rigidly, and to 
make it appear, on due consideration, that they are of 
no more authority, either in themselves or in regard 
to us, than has been already attributed by us unto them. 



THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES. 1 



CHAPTER II. 



REASON II. THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEM- 
SELVES, THAT THEY ARE NOT TO BE BELIEVED AB- 
SOLUTELY, AND UPON THEIR OWN BARE ASSERTION, 
IN WHAT THEY DECLARE IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 

There are none so fit to inform us what the authority 
of the writings of the ancients is, as the ancients them- 
selves, who in all reason must necessarily know this 
better than we. Let us therefore now hear what they 
testify in this particular ; and if we do indeed hold 
them in such high esteem, as we profess, let us allow of 
their judgment in this particular, attributing neither 
more nor less unto the ancients, than they themselves 
require at our hands. 

St. Augustin, who was the principal light of the 
Latin Church, having entered into a contest with St. 
Hierome, on the interpretation before-mentioned, of 
the second chapter of the Epistle of St. Paul to the 
Galatians ; and finding himself hardly pressed by the 
authority of six or seven Greek writers^ which are urged 
against him by the other ; to extricate himself, was 
obliged candidly to acknowledge in what account he held 
those writers : — " I confess," says he, " to thy charity, 
that I only owe to those books of Scripture which are 
now called canonical, that reverence and honour, as to 
believe stedfastly that none of their authors ever com- 
mitted any error in writing the same. And if by chance 
I there meet with anything, which seemeth to contradict 
the truth, I immediately think that either my copy is 
imperfect, and not so correct as it should be 3 or else, 
that the interpreter did not so well understand the 

1 5 



If 8 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

words of the original : or lastly, that I myself have not 
so rightly understood him. But as for all other writers, 
however eminent they are, either for sanctity or learn- 
ing, I read them in such manner as not instantly to 
conclude that whatever I there find is true, because 
the}'' have said it ; but rather, because they convince 
me, either out of the said canonical books of Scripture, 
or else by some probable reason, that what they say is 
true. Neither do 1 think, brother, that thou thyself art 
of any other opinion : that is to say, I do not believe 
that thou expectest that we should read thy books, as 
we do those of the Prophets or Apostles j of the truth 
of whose writings, as being exempt from all error, we 
may not in anywise doubt.'' * 

Having afterwards opposed some other similar autho- 
rities against those alleged by St, Hierome, he adds, 
iC That he had done so, notwithstanding that, to say the 
truth, he accounted the canonical Scriptures only to be 
the books to which (as he said before) he owed that in- 
genuous duty, as to be fully persuaded that the au- 
thors of them never erred, or deceived the reader in 
any thing. "f 

This holy man accounted this advice to be of such 
great importance, that he thought fit to repeat it again 

* Ego enim fateor caritati tuse solis eis Scripturarum libris, qui 
jam canonici appellantur, didici hunc timorem, honoremque deferre, 
ut nullum eorum auctorem scribendo aliquid errasse firmissime cre- 
dam. Ac si aliquid in eis offendero litteris, quod videatur contra - 
riura veritati, nihil aliud quam mendosum esse codicem, vel inter- 
pretem non assequutum esse quid dictum est, vel me minime intel- 
lexisse, non ambigara. Alios autem ita lego, ut quantalibet sancti- 
tate, doctrinaque prsepolleant, non ideo verum putem, quia ipsi ita 
senserunt, sed quia mihi, vel per illos authores canonicos, vel pro- 
babili ratione, quod a vero non abhorreat, persuadere potuerunt. 
Nee te, mi frater, sentire aliquid aliter existimo : prorsus inquam, 
non te arbitror sic legi libros tuos velle tanquam Prophetarum vel 
Apostolorum, de quorum scriptis, quod omni errore careant, dubitare 

nefarium est August, ej). ad J liar, qua est 19. t. 2. Jul. 14. ed. 

Paris. 1579, el infer Op. Ilier. 97. /. 2. j>. 551. 

t Quanquam, sicut paulo ante dixi, tantummodo Scripturis ca- 
nonicis banc ingenuam debeam servitutcm, qua eas solas ita sequar, 
ut conscriptores earum nihil in eis omnino errasse, nihil lallaciter 
posuisse non dubitem Id. ibid. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 179 

in another place ; and I must entreat my reader to give 
me leave to extract here the whole passage at length. 

" As for these kind of books," (says he, speaking 
of those which we write, not with the authority 
of commanding, but only from the design of exer- 
cising ourselves to benefit others,) M we are so to read 
them, as not to be bound necessarily to believe them, 
but to have the liberty left us of judging of what we 
read. Yet notwithstanding, that we may not quite ex- 
clude these books, and deprive posterity of the most 
profitable labour of exercising their language and style, 
in the handling and treating of difficult questions 5 
we make a distinction between these books of later 
writers, and the excellency of the canonical authority of 
the Old and New Testament -, which having been con- 
firmed in the Apostle's time, has since, by the bishops 
who succeeded them, and the churches which have been 
propagated throughout the world, been placed as it were 
upon a high throne, there to be reverenced and adored 
by every faithful and godly understanding. And if we 
chance here to meet with anything that troubles us, 
.and seems absurJ, we must not say that the author of 
the book was ignorant of the truth, but rather that 
either our copy is false, or the interpreter is mistaken 
in the sense of the place, or else that we do not under- 
stand him aright. 

u As for the writings of those other authors who have 
come after them, the number whereof is almost infinite, 
though coming very far short of this most sacred excel- 
lency of the canonical Scriptures, a man may sometimes 
find in them the very same truth, though it shall not be 
of equal authority. Therefore if by chance we here 
meet with such things as seem contrary to the truth, 
by reason, perhaps, of our not understanding them only, 
we have our liberty, either in reading or hearing the 
same, to approve of what we like, and to reject that 
which we conceive not to be right. So that except all 
such passages be made good, either by some certain 
reason, or else by the canonical authority of the Scrip- 
tures : and that it be made to appear, that what is asserted 
either really is, or else at least that it might have been ; 



180 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

he that shall reject or not assent to the same, ought 
not in any wise to be reprehended."* 

Thus far have we St. Augustin testifying on our side, 
(as well here, as in many other places, which would be 
too long to be inserted here,f) that those opinions 
which we find delivered by the Fathers in their writings, 
are grounded not upon their bare authority but upon 
their reasons ; and that they bind not our belief 
otherwise than so far as they are consonant to Scrip- 
ture or reason ; and that they ought to be examined by 
the one and the other, as proceeding from persons that 
are not infallible, but possibly may have erred. 

Hence it appears, that the course which is at this 
day pursued is not sufficient for the demonstration of 
the truth. For suppose we are in doubt what is 
the sense and meaning of a certain passage in Scrip- 
ture. You will immediately have the judgment of a 
Father brought upon the said passage, quite contrary 
to the rule which St. Augustin gives us, who would have 

* Quod genus literarum, non cum credendi necessitate, sed cum 
judicandi libertate legendum est. Cui tamen ne intercluderetur locus, 
et adimeretur posteris ad difficiles quaestiones tractandas atque ver- 
sandas, linguae ac styli salubenimus labor, distincta est a posteriorum 
libris excellentia canonicae auctoritatis Veteris et Novi Testamenti ; 
quae Apostolorum confirmata temporibus, per successiones episco- 
porum, et propagationes ecclesiarum, tanquam in sede quadam sub- 
limiter constituta est, cui serviat omnis fidelis et pius intellectus. 
Ibi si quid velut absurdum moverit, non licet dicere, auctor hujus 
libri non tenuit veritatem : sed, aut codex mendosus est, aut inter- 
pres erravit, aut tu non intelligis. In opusculis autem posteriorum, 
quae libris innumerabilibus continentur, sed nullo modo illi sacratissi- 
mae canonicarum Scripturarum excellentiae coaequantur, etiam in qui- 
buscuinque eorum invenitur eodem Veritas, longe tamenest impar auc- 
toritas. Itaque in eis, si qua forte propterea dissonare putantur a vero, 
quia non, ut dicta sunt, intelliguntur, tamen liberum ibi habet lec- 
tor, auditorve judicium quo vel approbet quod placuerit, velimprobet 
quod offenderit : et ideo cuncta ejusmodi, nisi vel certa ratione, 
vel ex ilia canonica auctoritate defendantur, ut demonstretur sive 
omnino ita esse, sive fieri potuisse, quod vel disputatur ibi, vel nar- 
ratum est, si cui displicuerit, aut credere voluerit, non reprehenditur. 
— August* Ep,ad Hier. I. 11, contr, Faust, c. 5. 

f August. Ep. ad Hier. t. 2. Epist. 48, ep. Ill, t 3, 1. 1, 3, de 
Trinit. c. 2, 1. 3, praufat. 1. 5, c. 1, t. 7, 1. 2, contr. crescon. Gram, 
c. 31, et c. 32, 1. 2, de Bapt. contr. Don. c. 3, 1. 3, de Peccat. mer. 
et rem c. 7, c. 1, de Nat. et grat. c. 61, 1. 4, contr. de ep. Pelag. c. 
S, L 1, contr. Julian, c. 2, 1. de bon. persever. c. 21. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 181 

us examine the Fathers by the Scriptures, and not the 
Scriptures by the Fathers. Certainly, according to the 
judgment of this Father, the Protestant, though a pas- 
sage as clear and express as any of the canons of the 
council of Trent, should be brought against him, out of 
any of the Fathers, ought not to be blamed ; if he should 
answer, that he cannot by any means assent unto it, 
unless the truth of it be first proved, either by some 
certain reason, or else by the authority of the canonical 
Scriptures $ and that then, and not till then, would he 
be ready to assent to it. 

Thus, according to this account, we are to allege, not 
the names of, but the reasons given in books ; to take 
notice, not of the quality of their authors, but of the 
solidity of their proofs ; to consider what it is they give 
us ) and not the face or hand of him that gives it us ; and, 
in a word, to reduce the dispute from persons to things. 

St. Jerome seems to commend unto us this method 
of proceeding, where, in the preface to his Second Com- 
mentary upon Hosea,he has these words : "Then (that 
is, after the authors of books are once departed this 
life) we judge of their worth and parts only, not con- 
sidering at all the dignity of their name : and the 
reader has regard only to what he reads, and not to the 
author of the work. So that whether he were a bishop 
or a layman, a general and a lord, or a common soldier 
and a servant $ whether he lie in purple and silk, or 
in the vilest and coarsest rags, he shall be judged, not 
according to his degree of honour, but according to the 
merit and worth of his works."* Now he here speaks 
either of matter of right or of fact : and his meaning 
is, that either we ought to take this course in our judg- 
ments, or else it is a plain affirmation, that it is the 
practice of the world so to do. If his words are to be 
taken in the first sense, he then clearly takes away all 
authority from the bare names of writers, and so would 

* Tunc sine nominum dignitate, sola judicantur ingenia ; nee con- 
siderat, qui lecturus est, cujus, sed quale sit quod lecturus est, sive 
sit episcopus, sive sit laicus, imperator et dominus, miles et servus, 
aut in purpura et serico, aut vilissimo panno jaceat, non honorum 
diversitate, sed operum merito judicabitur. — Hier. Com. 2, in Oseam, 
Prasfat. 



1S C 2 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 






have us to consider the quality only, and weight of their 
writings 5 that is to say, their reasons, and the force 
of the arguments they use. If he he to be understood 
in the second sense, he seems not to speak the truth ; 
it being evident, that the ordinary course of the world 
is to be more led by the titles and names of books, 
than by the matter therein contained. 

Suppose, however, that this was St. Hierome's mean- 
ing: we may notwithstanding very safely believe, that 
he approves of the said course 3 forasmuch as having 
this occasion of speaking of it, he does not at all re- 
prehend it. If therefore, reader, thou hast any wish to 
rely on his judgment, give the names of Augustin and 
of Hierome, of Chrysostom and of Cyril ; and forget 
for this once the rochet of the first, and the chair of 
the second, together with the patriarchal robe of the 
two last : and observe what they say, and not what they 
were: the ground and reason of their opinions 3 and 
not the dignity of their persons. 

But that which exites my wonder is, that some of those 
who have been the most conversant in antiquity should 
trouble themselves with filling their books with decla- 
matory expressions in praise of the authors they pro- 
duce,* not forbearing to recount the nobleness of their 
extraction, the choiceness of their education, the gal- 
lantry of their parts, the eminency of their see, and the 
greatness of their state. This manner of writing may 
perhaps suit well enough with the rules of rhetoric : 
but certain I am that it ill agrees with St. Hierome's 
advice, which we gave a little before. 

Let us now observe., out of some other more clear 
and express passages of his, what the judgment of his 
great Aristarchus, and censor of antiquity, has been on 
this point. u I know (says he, writing to Theophilus 
patriarch of Alexandria) that I place the Apostles in a 
distinct rank from all other writers : for as for them, 
they always speak truth : but as for those other, they 
err sometimes, like men as they weren't 

* Card. Perron, of the Eucharist. Ant 20. 

t Scio me aliter habere Apostolus ; aliter reliquos tractatores : il- 
los semper vera dicere ; istos in quibusdam, ut homines, errare. — 
J Her. ep* f>2, ad Theoph. Alex, 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 183 

What could he have said more expressly, in confirma- 
tion of our assertion before laid down ? f ' There are others 
(says he), both Greeks and Latins, who have erred also 
in points of faith 5 whose names I need not here notice, 
lest it might seem to defend Origen by the errors of 
others rather than by his own worth."* 

How then can we confide in them, unless we examine 
their opinions by their reasons ? " I shall (says the same 
author) read Origen as I read others 5 because I find he 
has erred in like manner as they have done/'f 

In another place, speaking in general of ecclesiastical 
writers ; that is, of those whom we now call Fathers, and 
of the faults and errors that are found in their books, 
he says : " It may be that they have erred out of mere 
ignorance, or else that they wrote in some other sense 
than we understand them; or that their writings have been 
corrupted, through the ignorance of the transcribers ; or 
else before the appearing of that impudent devil Arius, 
in the world, they let some things fall from them inno- 
cently, and not so w-arily as they might have done ; and 
such as can hardly escape the cavils of wrangling spi- 
rits.":!: Which passage of his, is a very excellent and 
remarkable one ; and contains in it a brief yet clear and 
full justification of the greatest part of what we have 
hitherto advanced in this discourse. 

Do but think therefore with how much circumspection 
we are to read and to weigh these authors ; and how 
careful we ought to be in examining in their books, 
whether there be not either some fault committed by 
the transcriber, or some obscurity in the expression, or 
some negligence in the conception, or lastly, some error 
in the proposition. 

In another place, having set down the opinions of 

* Erraverunt in fide alii, tarn Graeci quam Latini, quorum non ne- 
cesse est proferre nomina, ne videamur eum, non sui merito sed 
aliorum errore, defendere Id. ep. 65. ad. Pamm. et Oceanum. 

f Sic eum legam, ut caeteros ; quia sic erravit, ut ceteri. — Id. ibid. 

\ Fieri enim potest, ut vel simpliciter erraverint, vel alio sensu 
scripserint, vel a librariis imperitis eorum paulatim scripta corrupta 
sint ; vel certe antequam in Alexandria quasi daemonium meridia- 
num Arius nasceretur, innocenter quaedam, et minus caute loquuti 
sunt, et quae non possint perversorum hominum columniam decli- 
nare — Hier. I. 2. Apol. contra. Huff. 



184 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

several authors, respecting a certain question that had 
been proposed to him, that thus the reader might make 
choice of the best, Hierome gives this reason for so doing, 
" Because (says he) we ought not, according to the exam- 
ple of Pythagoras's scholars, to have an eye to the preju- 
dicated opinion of the proposer, but rather the reason of 
the thing proposed :"* which words of his sufficiently con- 
firm the sense we have formerly given of that passage of 
his in the Preface to his second commentary upon Hosea. 
He presently afterwards adds ; " My purpose is to read 
the ancients 5 to prove all things, and to hold fast that 
which is good 5 and not to depart from the faith of the 
Catholic Church." f According to the rule which he 
has commended to us, in his 76th epistle, where he ad- 
vises us " read Origen, Tertullian, Novatus, Arno- 
bius, Apollinaris, and others of the ecclesiastical writers ; 
but with this caution, that we should make choice of 
that which is good, but take heed of embracing that which 
is not so ; according to the apostle, who bids us prove all 
things, but hold fast only that which is good/' \ 

This is the course Hierome constantly takes, censur- 
ing with the greatest liberty the opinions and exposi- 
tions of all those who went before him. He gives you 
freely his judgment of every one of them ; affirming 
"That Cyprian scarcely touched the Scripture at all : 
that Victorinus was not able to express his own concep- 
tions : that Lactantius is not so happy in his endeavours 
to prove our religion, as he is in overthrowing that of 
others: that Arnobius is very uneven and confused, and 
too luxuriant : that St. Hilary is too swelling, and encum- 
bered with too long periods. "§ 

* Nee juxta Pythagorae discipulos, prejudicata doctoris opinio, sed 
doctrinae ratio ponderanda est. — Id. Ep. 15. 2. 

f Meum propositum est, antiquos legere, probare singula, retinere 
quae bona sunt, et a fide Ecclesia) Catholicae non recedere — Id. ibid. 

J Ego Origenem propter eruditionem sic interdum legendum arbi- 
tror, quomodo Tertullianum, Novatum, Amobium. Apollinarium, et 
nonnullos ecclesiasticos scriptores, Graecos pariter, et Latinos, ut 
bona eorum eligamus, vitemusque contraria ; juxta apostolum dicen- 
tem, Omnia probate ; quod bonum est tenete. — Id. Ep. 76. ad 
Trail (/nil . 

§ Cyprianus de scripturis divinis ncquaquam disseruit. Inclyto 
Victorinus martyrio coroiuitus, quod intelligit eloqui non potest. 
Lactantius utinam tain nostra connrmare potuisset, quam facile alie- 
na destruxit. Arnobius Lnsqualifl et niniius est, et absque operis sui 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 185 

I shall not here lay before you what he says of Ori- 
gen, Theodorus, Apollinaris, and of the Chiliasts 5 whose 
professed enemy he has declared himself, and whom he 
reproves very sharply upon all occasions, whenever they 
come in his way ; and yet he confesses them all to have 
been men of very great parts ; giving even Origen him- 
self, who is the most dangerous writer of them all, this 
testimony, " That none but the ignorant can deny but 
that, next to the Apostles, he was one of the greatest 
masters of the Church."* 

But that I may not meddle with any but such whose 
names have never been cried down in the Church, do 
but mark how he deals with Rheticius Augustudunensis, 
an ecclesiastical author : " There are (says he) an infi- 
nite number of things in his Commentaries, which in my 
judgment appear very mean and poor :"f an d a little 
after 5 " He seams to have had so ill an opinion of 
others, as to have a conceit that no man was able to 
judge of his faults/' % He takes the same liberty also, in 
rejecting their opinions and expositions ; and sometimes 
not without passing upon them some smart ridicule. 
He justifies the truth of the Hebrew text of the Old Tes- 
tament, and finds an infinite number of faults in the 
translation of the Seventy, against almost the general 
consent, not only of the more ancient writers, but also 
of those too who lived in his own time, who all esteemed 
it as a divine production. He scoffs at the conceit of 
those men, who believed that the seventy interpreters, 
being placed separately in seventy distinct cells, were 
inspired from above, in the translation of the Bible. § 
" Let them keep, (says he, speaking of his own back- 
biters by w r ay of scorn,) with all my heart, in the seventy 

partitione confusus. St. Hilarius Galli cano cothurno attollitur, et 
longis interdum periodis involvitur, et a lectione simpliciorum fra- 
trum procul est — Hier. ep. 13 ad Peulin. B. 

* Quern (Originem) post apostolos ecclesiarum magistrum nemo 
nisi imperitus negat Hier. Prcefat. in lib. de Nom. Hebr. 

f Innuroerabilia sunt, quae in illius mihi Commentariis sordere visa 
sunt.—/*:/, ep. 133, ad Marcel. 

X Sed tarn male videtur existimasse de caeteris, ut nemo possit de 
ejus erroribus judicare. — Id. ibid. 

§ Nescio quis primus auctor septuaginta cellulas Alexandria men- 
dacio suo exstruxerit. — Hier. Prcefat. in Pentateuc . ad Desid. 



186 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

cells of the Alexandrian Pharos, for fear they should 
lose the sails of their ships, and be forced to bewail 
the loss of their cordage. "* 

As for their expositions, he refuses them openly when- 
ever they do not please him. Thus does he find fault with 
the exposition which is given by the greatest part of the 
Fathers, of the word Israel ; which they will have to 
signify, a man seeing God : " Notwithstanding that those 
who interpret it thus, are persons of very great authority 
and eloquence, and whose very shadow is sufficient to 
bear us down : yet (says he) we cannot but choose to fol- 
low the authority of the Scriptures, and of the angel, 
and of God, who gave this name of Israel, rather than 
the power of any secular eloquence, however great it 
may be/'f And in his 146th epistle, written to Pope 
Damasus, he says : " That there are some who, not con- 
sidering the text, conceive superstitiously rather than 
truly, that these words, in the beginning of the 44th 
Psalm, ' Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum,' (My heart 
is inditing a good matter), are spoken in the person of 
the Father. "J Yet the greatest part of those who lived 
in the time of Arius, and a little after him, understood 
these words in the same sense. 

It was likewise the general opinion, in a manner, of 
all men, that Adam was buried upon Mount Calvary, 
and in the very same place where our Saviour Christ 
was crucified. Yet St. Hierome rejects this opinion :§ 
and which is more, he makes himself merry with it, 
without any scruple at all. So likewise there were 
some among the afore-named ancient Fathers, who out 
of a pious affection which they bore to St. Peter, main- 

* Habitentque in septuaginta cellulis Alexandrini Phari, ne vela 

perdant de navibus, et fimium detrimenta^suspirent Id. Comm. 10. 

in Ezech. 

f Quamvis igitur grandis auctoritatis sint, et eloquentice, et ipso- 
rum umbra nos opprimat, qui, Israel, virum, sive mentem videntem 
Deura, transtulerunt ; nos magis Scripturae, et angeli et Dei, qui 
ipsum Israel vocavit, auctoritate ducimur, quam cujuslibet eloquen- 
tiae sascularis. — Ilicr. Trad it. llcbr. 

\ Licet quidam superstitiose magis, quam vere, considerantes textuni 
psalmi, ex l'atris persona arbitrentur hsec intelligi. — Id. cp. 146, ad 
J Jam as. 

§ Hier. in loc. Hebr. Euseb. et Com. 4. in Matth. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 187 

tained that he denied not God, but man,* and that the 
sense of the words of his denial, is, " I know him not to 
be a man, for I know that he is God." " The intelligent 
reader (says the same St. Hierome) will easily perceive 
how idle and frivolous a thing this is, to accuse our 
Saviour as guilty of falsehood, by excusing his Apostle. 
For if St. Peter did not deny him, our Saviour must 
then necessarily have spoken '. falsely, when he said 
unto him, ' Verily I say unto thee/ &c."t He takes the 
same liberty also in reprehending St. Ambrose, who un- 
derstands by Gog, spoken of in the Prophet Ezekiel, the 
nation of the Goths.X Neither do those other Fathers 
escape his lash, who indulging too much in allegories, 
take Bosra in Isaiah for the flesh 5 whereas it signfies a 
fortress.^ 

I might here produce many similar passages, but 
these few shall now serve as a sample : for who sees 
not by this time that these holy men considered not 
the Fathers, who went before them, as the judges or 
arbitrators on the opinions of the Church ? and that 
they did not receive their testimonies and depositions 
as oracles, but reserved the right which St. Augustin 
allows to every man, of examining them by the rule of 
reason, and of the Scripture. Neither are we to take 
any notice at all of St. Hierome, when he seems to ex- 
cept out of this number the writings of Athanasius, and 
of St. Hilary ; writing to Lseta, and telling her, that 
her daughter Paula might walk securely, and with firm 
footing, by the epistles of the one, and the books of the 
other ; and therefore he counselleth her " to take de- 
light in these men's writings : inasmuch as in their books 
the piety of faith wavereth not : and as for all other 
authors, she may read them ; but rather to pass her judg- 
ment upon them, than to follow them."|| For first of 

* Hilar, in Matth. Can. 3. 

f Hoc quam frivolum sit, prudens lector intelligit, si defendunt 
Apostolum.ut Deuni mendacii reum faciant, &c. — Hier. Com. 4. in 
Mat. in c. 26. 

X Id. Com. xi. in Ezech. in Prcefat. Ambros, 1. 2, de fid. ad Grat. 

§ Hier. in Esai. Comm. x. 

|J lllorum tractatibus, illorum delectetur ingeniis, in quorum libris 
pietas fidei non vacillat. Caeteros sic legat, ut magis judicet, quam 
sequatur — Hier. Fp. 7. ad Lcet. 



188 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

all, though perhaps there should he some work of a 
Father that should have no error in it, (as question- 
less there are many such), yet this would not render the 
authority of the same infallible. How many such books 
are there, even of the moderns, wherein neither the one 
party nor the other has been able to discover the least 
error in matter of faith ? And yet I suppose no man 
will at once conclude from hence, that we ought to admit 
of these authors as judges of our faith. A man may 
there find perhaps the same truth, (as St. Augustin 
says a little before) : but it will not be of equal authority 
with that of the canonical books.* Besides, as cardi- 
nal Baronius has observed, this last passage of St. Hie- 
rome ought to be understood only in the point touching 
the Holy Trinity ; concerning which there were at that 
time great disputes between the Catholics and the 
Arians ; for otherwise, if his words be taken in a general 
sense, they will be found to be false, as to St. Hilary, 
who has had his failings in some certain things, as we 
shall see hereafter. In a word, although St. Hierome 
were to be understood as speaking in a general sense, 
(as his words indeed seem to bear), yet might the same 
thing possibly happen to him here, which he has ob- 
served has oftentimes befallen others ; namely, to be 
mistaken in his judgment. For we are not to imagine, 
that he would have us entertain a greater opinion of 
him, than he himself has of other men. St. Augustin 
told him, as we have before shewn, that he did not be- 
lieve he expected that men should judge otherwise of 
him 5 and I suppose we may very safely adhere to St. 
Augustin's judgment, and believe with him that St. 
Hierome had never any intention that we should re* 
ceive all his positions as infallible truths : but rather 
that he would have us to read and examine his w T ritings 
with the same freedom that we do those of other men. 
If we have no wish to take St. Augustin's word in 
these particulars, let us yet receive St. Hierome's : who 
in his second commentary upon the prophet Habakkuk 
says : " And thus have I briefly delivered to you my opi- 
nion 3 but if any one produce that which is more exact 

* Baron. Annal. an. 369, Sect. 24. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 189 

and true, take his exposition rather than mine."* So 
likewise upon the prophet Zephaniah he says, u We 
have now done our utmost endeavour, in giving an alle- 
gorical exposition of the text ; but if any other can 
bring that which is more probable and agreeable to 
reason than that which we have delivered, let the reader 
be guided by his authority rather than by ours."f And in 
another place he speaks to the same purpose in these 
w T ords : " This we have written according to the utmost 
of our poor ability, and have given a short sketch of the 
divers opinions, both of our own men and of the Jews ; 
yet if any man can give me a better and truer ac- 
count of these things, I shall be very ready to embrace 
them. ,, J 

Is this now, I would fain ask, to bind up our tongues 
and our belief, so that we should have no further liberty 
of refusing what he has once laid down before us, or 
of searching into the reasons and grounds of his opi- 
nions ? No, let us rather make use of that liberty 
which they all allow us ; let us hearken to them, but 
(as they themselves advise us) when what they deliver 
is grounded upon reason, and upon the Scriptures. If 
they had not made use of this caution, in the reading 
of those authors who went before them, the Christian 
faith had now been altogether replete with the dreams 
of an Origen, or an Apollinaris, or some other similar 
authors. But neither the excellency of the doctrine, 
nor yet the resplendency of their holy life, which no man 
can deny to have shone forth very eminently in the 
primitive Fathers, were able so to dazzle the eyes of 
those that came after them, as that they could not dis- 
tinguish between that which was sound and true in their 
writings, and that which was trivial and false. Let not 



* Si quis autem his sagaciora et veriora repererit, illi magis ex- 
planation! praebete consensum. — Hier. Com. 2. in Abac. 

(• Si quis autem magis verisimilia, et habentia rationem, quam a 
nobis sunt disserta, repererit, illius magis lector auctoritate duca- 
tur. — Id. in Sophon. 

X Hsec ut quivimus, ut vires ingenioli nostri ferre potuerunt, lo- 
quuti sumus, et Hebraeorum et nostrorum varias opiniones breviter 
perstringentes. Si quis melius, imo verius dixerit ; et nos libenter 
melioribus acquiescimus. — Hier. Com. in Zach, 



190 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

therefore the excellency of those who came after them 
hinder us, either from passing by, or even rejecting 
their opinions, when we find them built upon weak 
foundations. 

You see they confess themselves that this may very 
possibly be : we should therefore be left utterly inex- 
cusable, if after this their so charitable admonition, we 
should still believe all they say, without examining any- 
thing. " I take it for a favour, (says St. Ambrose) 
when any one that reads my writings, gives me an ac- 
count of what doubts he there meets with. First of all, 
because I may be deceived in those very things which I 
know. And besides, many things escape us ; and some 
things sound otherwise to some than perhaps they do 
to me."* 

I shall here further desire the reader to take notice, 
how careful the ancients were in advising those who 
lived in their own time to take a strict examination of 
their words : as for example, where Origen advises, 
" That his auditors should prove whatever he delivered, 
and that they should be attentive, and receive the grace 
of the Spirit from whom proceeds the discerning of 
spirits, that thus, as good bankers, they might diligently 
observe when their pastor deceives them ; and when he 
preaches unto them that which is pious and true."f 
Cyril likewise, in his fourth catechesis, has these words : 
" Believe me not (says he) in whatsoever I shall simply 
deliver, unless thou find the things which I shall speak 
demonstrated out of the Holy Scriptures. For the 
conservation and establishment of our faith, is not 
grounded upon the eloquence of language, but rather 
upon the proofs that are brought out of the Divine 
Scriptures :" — MrjSe eftoi to) ravra GoiXeyovri ditXioQ inc- 
revcryg, kav rrjv airohei^iv twv KaTayyaWofxevwv cnro tujv 

* Ego enim beneficio annumero, siquis mea legens scripta dicat 
mihi, quo videaturmoveri. Primum, quia et in iis qua? scio, falli pos- 
sum. Multa autem praetereunt, multa quibusdaui aliter sonant 

Ambros. I. 7, Ep. 47. 

f Quaeso audientcs, ut diligenter attendant, et accipiant gratiam 
spiritus, de qua dictum est discretio spirituum ; ut probati Trape- 
littt fact i, diligenter observent, quando falsus sim magister, quando 
vero praedicem, quae sunt pietatis ac veritatis. — Orig. Horn. 2, in 
Kzcch. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 191 

Btiwv fj,rj Xafirjg ypacpiov' rj (Ttorrjpia yap dvrr) tt)q Trtorewc 
il/jLwv ovfc it, evpeviXoyiac, ciWa it, air oOeit,Eit)v tu)V Oekov iart 

If therefore they would not have those who heard 
them speak viva voce, to believe them in anything, un- 
less they had demonstrated the truth of it out of the 
Scriptures, how much less would they have us now re- 
ceive, without this demonstration, those opinions which 
we meet with in their books, which are not only mute, 
but corrupted also, and altered so much, and so many 
several ways, as#we have formerly shewn ? 

Certainly, when I see these holy men on one side 
declaring that they are men subject to errors ; and that 
therefore we ought to consider and examine what they 
deliver, and not take it all as oracular: and then, on 
the other side, bring before my eyes these worthy 
maxims of the ages following : viz. " That their doctrine 
is the law of the Church Universal ;" and " That we are 
bound to follow it, not only according to the sense, but 
according to the bare words also : and that we are 
bound to hold ali that they have written, even to the 
least tittle :f" — this representation, I say, makes me call 
to mind the history of Paul and Barnabas, to whom the 
Lycaonians would needs render divine honour, notwith- 
standing all the resistance these holy men were able to 
make ; who could not forbear to rend their garments, 
through indignation, at seeing that service paid to 
themselves which was due to the Divine Majesty alone; 
running in amongst them, and crying out aloud, — " Sirs, 
why do ye these things ? we also are men of like pas- 
sions with you." For seeing that there is none but 
God, whose word is certainly and necessarily true : 
and seeing that, on the other side, the word, whereon we 
ground and build our faith, ought to be such -, who sees 
not, that it is the same as investing man with the glory 
which is due to God alone, and placing him in a manner 



* Cyril. Hieros. Cateches. 4. 

f l D.v (^7VXTBpwv) ra. loyixoLTa. vOjtto; t>j xa9oA/XTj xa9e0"rr;x6V ExxXtj- 
ertau Turn; T\'j.<tol yap avayxrj fxr\ /j.ovo> holt 1 lvvo*av rotg rwv ayiwt 
TTotTepwv S7re(7^7.i ov/uxo-iv, olKKol xou TOLig OL'jToug Ixttvatg y.e'yj)r)0 , $ai $w- 
**tg. — Serg. Pair. C.N, Mon. in ep. ad. Cyr, ConciL VI. 



192 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

in his seat, if we make His word the rule and founda- 
tion of our faith, and the Judge of our differences con- 
cerning it? 

I am therefore firmly of opinion, that if these holy- 
men could now behold from their blessed mansions, 
where they now live in bliss on high with their Lord 
and Saviour, what things are acted here below, they 
would be very much offended at this false honour, which 
men confer upon them much against their wills ; and 
would take it as a very great injury offered them -, seeing 
that they cannot receive this honour, but to the preju- 
dice and diminution of the glory of their Redeemer ; 
whom they love a thousand times more than themselves. 
Or if, from out of their sepulchres, where the reliques 
of their mortality are now laid up, they could but make 
us hear their sacred voice, they would (I am very con- 
fident) most sharply reprove us for this abuse, and 
would cry out, in the words of St. Paul, " Sirs, why do 
ye these things ? we also were men of like passions 
with you." 

Yet what need is there, either of ransacking their 
sepulchres, and disturbing their sacred ashes ; or of 
calling down their spirits from heaven ; seeing that their 
voice resoundeth loud enough, and is heard so plainly in 
those very books of theirs, which we so very impru- 
dently place in that seat, which is only due to the word 
of God ? We have heard what the judgment was of St. 
Augustin and of St. Hierome, (the two most eminent 
persons in the western Church,) on this particular : let 
us not then be afraid, having such examples to follow, 
to speak freely our opinions. But now, before we go 
any further, I conceive it will be necessary, that we 
answer an objection that may be brought against us, 
which is, that Athanasius, St. Cyril, and St. Augustin 
himself also, frequently cite the Fathers. 

Besides what some have observed, that the Fathers sel- 
dom entered into these lists,but when they were provoked 
by their adversaries ; 1 add further, that when we main- 
tain that the authority of the Fathers is not a sufficient 
medium, to prove an article of faith by j we do not 
thereby forbid either the reading or the citing of them. 
The Fathers often quote the writings of the learned 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 193 

Heathens, the oracles of the Sibyls, and passages out 
of the Apocryphal books. Did they therefore think 
that these books were of sufficient authority to ground 
an article of faith upon ? God forbid we should enter- 
tain so ill an opinion of them. Their faith was grounded 
upon the word of God : yet to evidence the truth more 
fully, they searched into human records, and by this 
inquiry made it appear that the light of the truth, re- 
vealed unto them, had in some degree shot its beams 
even into the schools of men, however dark and obscure 
they had been. If they had produced no other but 
human authority, they would never have been able to 
have brought over any one person to the faith. But 
after they had received, by Divine revelation, the matter 
of our faith, it was very wisely done of them, in the 
next place, to prove, not the truth, but the clearness of it, 
by these little sparks which shot forth their light in 
the spirits of men. For the like reason did St. Au- 
gustin, Athanasius, Cyril, and many others of them, 
make use of allegations out of the Fathers. For after 
each of these had grounded, upon the authority of Di- 
vine revelation, the necessity and efficacy of grace, the 
consubstantiality of the Son with the Father, and the 
union of the two natures in Christ 5 they then began to 
produce several passages out of those learned men who 
had lived before them ; to evince to the world that this 
truth was so clear in the word of God, that all who 
preceded them had both seen and acknowledged the 
same : a fact both pleasing and useful to them. For 
what can more delight a faithful heart, than to find that 
the chief and most eminent persons in the Church, had 
long since held the same opinions as regards our Sa- 
viour Jesus Christ, and his grace that we now hold at 
this day? 

Yet it does not hence follow, that though these holy 
men should have met with these articles of our faith in 
the writings of their predecessors, without finding any 
foundation for them in the canonical Scriptures, they 
would notwithstanding firmly have believed and em- 
braced it, thus contenting themselves with the bare 
authority of their predecessors. 

St. Augustin professes plainly, that in such a case 

K 



194 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

they might better have rejected them, and not be blamed 
for so doing, than have received them, unless they 
would incur the imputation of being credulous. For 
it is a point of too much credulity to believe any thing 
without reason : and he further affirmeth, that where 
men speak without either Scripture or reason, their bare 
authority is not sufficient to oblige us to believe what 
they propose unto us. Hence it thus appears, that 
human testimonies are adduced, not to prove the truth 
of the faith, but only to shew the clearness of it after t 
is once well grounded. 

Now the question between the Protestants and the 
Church of Rome, is not concerning the clearness of the 
truth of the articles they believe, and urge upon the 
world : it yet lies upon them to prove even the very 
ground and foundation of them. Shew me, therefore, 
(will a Protestant here say,) either out of some text of 
Scripture, or else by some evident reason, that there is 
any such place as purgatory, and that the Eucharist is 
not bread ; and that the Pope is the monarch and head 
of the Church Universal ; and then I shall be very glad 
to try, if for our greater comfort we may be able to 
find, in the authors of the third or fourth century, 
these truths embraced by the Fathers of those times. 

But to begin with these, is to invert the natural order 
of things. We ought first to be assured that the 
thing is, before we make inquiry whether it hath been 
believed or not. For to what purpose is it to find that 
the ancients believed it, unless we find withal in their 
writings some reason of this their belief? And again, 
on the other side, what harm is it to us to be ignorant 
whether antiquity believed it or not, so long as we know 
that the thing is ? And whereas there are some who, 
to establish the supreme authority of the Fathers, 
alleged the counsel which Sisinnius, a Novatian, and 
Agellius his bishop, gave of old to Nectarius archbishop 
of Constantinople,* and by him to Theodosius the em- 
peror, which was, that they should demand of the 
Arians, whether or not he would stand to what the 
Fathers who died before the breaking forth of their 

* Sozomen, 1, 7. c. 12. Hest. Eccles. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 195 

heresy, had delivered on the point disputed between 
them. This is hardly worth our consideration ; for, 
this was a trick only, devised by a subtle head, and 
which is worse, by a schismatic, and consequently to be 
suspected as a captious proposal, purposely made to en- 
trap the adverse party ; rather than any free and inge- 
nuous way of proceeding, 

If this manner of proceeding had been right and 
proper, how came it to pass, that among so many Ca- 
tholic bishops none of them advised it ? How came it 
to pass, that they were so ignorant of the weapons 
wherewith the enemies of the Church were to be en- 
countered ? How happened it that it should be proposed 
only by a young fellow who was a schismatic too ? 
And if it were approved of, as right and good counsel, 
why did Gregory Nazianzen, St. Basil, and so many 
others of the Fathers who wrote in that age against the 
Arians, deal with them entirely by arguments from 
the Scriptures? Certainly those holy men, indepen* ' 
dent of their Christian candor, which obliged them to 
this mode of proceeding, took a very wise course in so 
doing. For if this controversy had been to be decided 
by the authority of human writers, I know not how any 
man should have been able to make good that which 
this gallant so confidently affirms in the place just cited 5 
namely, " That none of the ancients ever said that the 
Son of God had any beginning of his generation ;"* 
considering those many strange passages that w T e yet at 
this day meet with on this particular, in the books of 
the first Fathers : which is the reason also why the 
Arians alleged their testimonies ; as we see they do in 
the books of Athanasius, Hilary, and others of the 
ancients who wrote against them. But why need we 
insist so long upon a story which is rejected by cardinal 
Baronius, as being an idle tale devised by Zozomene, 
who was a Novatian, in favour of those of his own 
sect.t 

The counsel of Vincentius Lirinensis, which he gives 

* Ev yap rj5e<, wg 0/ 7rtxXouoi avvotibiov tw 7rccTpt tov viov evpovreg, ovx 6T0X- 
fxrjcrtxv enrtiv ex rivoq otpyris rr^v yevzaw aurov l^e<v. — Sozomen. loc. citat. 
f Baron. Annal. Ann. 383. 

k<2 



196 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

us in a certain little discourse of his very highly praised 
by Gennadius,* is accounted by many men much more 
worthy of our consideration. For, — having first told 
us, that he speaks not of any authors, " save only 
of such who, having piously, wisely, and constantly 
lived, preached, and persevered in the Catholic faith and 
communion, obtained the favour at length, either to die 
faithfully in Christ, or else had the happiness of being 
crowned with martyrdom for Christ's sake ;" — he further 
adds, " that we are to receive, as undoubtedly true, 
certain and definitive, whatsoever all the aforesaid 
authors or at least the greatest part of them, have 
clearly, frequently, and constantly affirmed, with an 
unanimous consent, receiving, retaining, and delivering 
it over to others, as it were jointly, and making up all 
of them but one common and unanimous council of 
doctors. "f 

But this passage is so far from advancing the su- 
preme authority, which some would attribute to the 
Fathers in matters of faith, that, on the contrary, I 
meet with something in it that makes me doubt more of 
their authority than I did before. For I find, by this 
man's discourse, that whatsoever his reason was, 
whether good or bad, he clearly appears to have had a 
very great desire of bringing all differences in religion 
before the judgment seat of the Fathers ; and to the 
same end he labours to prove, with the same eagerness 
and feeling, that their judgment is infallible in these 
cases. But in the mean time I find him so perplexed 
and troubled in bringing out that which he would have, 

* Gennad. in Catal. inter Op. Hieron. 

f Sed eorum duntaxat Patrum sentential confer endse sunt, qui in 
fide et communione Catholica sanct6, sapienter, eonstanter viventes, 
docentes, et permanentes, vel mori in Christo fideliter, vel occidi pro 
Christo fceliciter meruerunt. Quibus tamen hac lege credendum est, 
ut quicquid vel omnes, vel "plnres, uno eodemque sensu manifeste, 
frequenter, perseveranter, velut quodam consentiente sibi magistro- 
rum concilio, accipiendo, tenendo, tradendo nrmaverint, id pro in- 
(lul)itato, certo, ratoque habeatur : quicquid vero quamvis ille sanc- 
tus et doctus, quamvis episcopus, quamvis confessor, et martyr, prae- 
ter omneis, aut etiam contra omneis senserit, id inter proprias, et 
OCCultaa et privates opiniunculas a communis, publicae, et generalis 
sentential authoritate secretum sit — Vincent. Lirin. Common, c. 39. 

— t. 4. jjibi. ri\ 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 19/ 

that it appears evident he saw well enough that what he 
desired was not so agreeable to truth. For he has so 
qualified his proposition, and bound it in with so many 
limitations, that it is very probable, if all these condi- 
tions which he here requires were any where to be 
found, we might then safely, perhaps, rely upon the 
writings of the Fathers. But then, on the other side, it 
is so very difficult a matter, to meet with such a con- 
junction of so many several qualifications, that I very 
much doubt whether we shall be ever able to enjoy this 
happiness or not. 

First of all, for the persons of those men whose 
testimonies we allege, he requires that they should be 
such as not only live, but also taught, and which is more, 
persevered too, not only in faith but in the communion 
also of the Catholic Church. And then, for fear of 
being surprised and taken at his word, he comes over us 
with a new supply, and qualifies his words with a 
restriction of three adverbs, and tells us, that they must 
have lived and taught piously, wisely, and constantly. 
But yet this is not all, for besides this, they must 
have either died in Christ or for Christ. So that if 
they lived but did not teach ; or if they both lived and 
taught, but did not persevere; or if they both lived, 
taught, and also persevered in the faith, but not in the 
communion ; or else in the communion, but not in the 
faith of the Catholic Church ; or if they yet lived and 
taught piously but not wisely; or, on the contrary, 
wisely but not piously $ and if, in the last place, after 
all this, having performed all the particulars before set 
down, they did not at last die either in Christ or for 
Christ ; they ought not, according to this man's rule, be 
admitted as witnesses in this case. Certainly he might 
have stopped here, and not have gone on still with his 
modifications as he does, limiting the number and the 
words of these witnesses. For what Christian ever 
made scruple of receiving the opinions of such a one as 
had both piously, wisely, and constantly lived, and 
taught in the faith and communion of the Catholic 
Church ? For you might hence very well rest assured, 
that whatsoever he had delivered was true ; and conse- 
quently fit to be believed : for how could he have 






198 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 



taught wisely and constantly, if he had taught any false 
doctrine? All that he here therefore promises us is 
no more but this ; that we should be sure not to be 
deceived, provided that we believed no other doctrines 
save what were holy and true. This promise of his is 
like that which little children are wont to make, when 
they tell you, that you shall never die if you but eat 
always. Neither do I believe that there is any man in 
the world so perverse and wilful, as not readily to 
assent to such a man, as he assuredly knew to be 
so qualified, as Vincentius Lirinensis would here have 
him to be. 

But seeing that it is necessary that we should first 
know the quality of the witness before we hear him : it 
follows, in my judgment, that before we do so much 
as hear any of the Fathers, we ought to be first 
assured, that he was so qualified in every particular, 
according to Vincentius's rule before laid down. Now 
I would wish to be informed how it is possible for us to 
know this ? Who will assure us, that Athanasius, St. 
Cyril, or what other Father you please, both lived, 
taught, persevered, and died piously, wisely, and con- 
stantly in the faith and communion of the Catholic 
Church ? This can never be done without a most exact 
inquiry made, both into their life and doctrines, which 
is an impossible thing, considering the many ages that 
have passed from their times down to ours. But yet 
supposing that this were a possible thing, it would 
nevertheless be of no use at all as to this author's pur- 
pose.' For he will have us hear the Fathers, to the end 
that we may be by them instructed in the truth. Now 
that we may be rightly informed, whether or not they 
were so qualified as is before required ; we ought neces- 
sarily to know first of all what the truth is. For how 
is it otherwise possible that we should be able to judge 
whether theyhave taught piously and wisely? And if you 
w r ere before hand instructed in the truth, what need have 
you then to hear them, and to desire to be instructed in it 
by them ? You may indeed make use of them for the 
illustration and confirmation of that which you knew 
before ; but you cannot learn any truth from which you 
knew not before. If you understand the maxim before 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 199 

alleged in another sense, and take this wisdom and 
piety, this faith and communion of the Catholic Church 
therein mentioned for a shadow only, and the super- 
ficies and outward appearance of those things ; and for 
a common and empty opinion, grounded merely upon 
the public voice of the people, and not upon an exact 
knowlege of the thing itself, it will then prove to be 
manifestly false ; those persons who have but the out- 
ward appearance only, and not the reality of these 
qualities, being no way fit to be admitted as witnesses, 
much less to be received as the supreme judges in the 
point of the Christian faith. Thus this proposition is 
either impossible, if you understand it as the words 
seem to sound, or else it is false, if you take it in any 
larger sense. The like exceptions may be made against 
those other conditions, which he there further requires, 
on the number and the words of these witnesses. For 
he allows not the force of a law to anything, but what 
has been delivered either by all, or else by the greatest 
part of them. If by all, he here means all the Fathers 
that have ever been, or but the greatest part of them 
only, he then puts us upon an impossibility. For 
taking the whole number of Fathers that ever have been, 
the greatest and perhaps too the best part of them 
have not written any thing at all : and among those that 
have written, how many hath time devoured ? and how 
many hath the false dealings of men, either wholly sup- 
pressed or else corrupted and altered ? It is therefore 
evidently impossible to know, what the opinions have 
been, either of all, or of the greatest part of the Fathers 
in this sense. And if he restrains this all, and this 
greatest part, to those who appear at this day, either in 
their own books or in historians, and the writings of 
other men ; it will concern us then to inquire, whether 
or not, by all, he means all promiscuously, without dis- 
tinguishing them by the several ages in which they 
lived : or else, whether he would have us distinguish 
them into several classes, putting together in the same 
rank all those that lived in one and the same age 5 and 
receiving for truth whatsoever we find to have been 
held and confirmed by the greatest part of them. Now 
both these ways agree in one thing, that they render 



200 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

the judgment of the Christian faith wholly casual, and 
make it depend upon divers and sundry accidents, 
which have been the cause of the writings of the Fathers 
being either preserved or lost. Put the case that Vin- 
centius should have cleared, by this excellent course of 
his, some point or other which had been controverted : 
he must have thanked the fire, the water, the moths, or 
the worms for having spared those authors which he 
made use of, and for having consumed all those other, 
that wrote in favour of the adverse party : for other- 
wise he would have been a heretic. And if we should 
decide our differences in matters of faith after this 
manner, we should do in a measure as he did, who gave 
judgment upon the suits of law that came before him, 
by the chances he threw with three dice. 

Do but conceive what an endless labour it would be, 
for a man either to go and heap together, and run over 
all the authors that ever have written, one with another ; 
or else to distinguish them into the several ages in which 
they wrote, and to examine them by companies. And 
do but imagine again, what satisfaction a man should be 
able to obtain from hence ; and where we should be, in 
case we should find (as it is possible it may sometimes 
so happen, as we shall shew hereafter) that the sense 
and judgment of this greatest part should prove to be 
either contrary to, or perhaps besides, the sense and 
meaning either of the Scriptures or of the Church. 
And again, how senseless a thing were it, to make the 
suffrages of equal authority, of persons that are so un- 
equal themselves, either in respect of their merit, learn- 
ing, holy life, and soundness of faith : and that a Rheti- 
cius, whom St. Hierome censured so sharply a little 
before, should be reckoned equal to St. Augustin : or a 
Philastrius be as good a man as St. Hierome ? There 
is perhaps among the Fathers such a one, whose judg- 
ment is of more weight than a hundred others -, and yet 
forsooth will this man have us to make our double* and 
our sous pass for as much as our crowns and pistoles. 

Lastly, what reason in the world is there, that al- 
though perhaps the persons themselves were equal in 
all things, we should yet make their words also of equal 
force, which are often of very different and unequal au- 






IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 201 

thority ; some of them having uttered, as it were, before 
the bar, the books having been produced, both parties 
heard, and the whole cause thoroughly examined : and 
the other perhaps having been cast forth by their au- 
thors at all adventure, as it were ; either in their cham- 
ber, or else in discourse walking abroad ; or else perhaps 
by the by, while they were treating of some other mat- 
ter ? But our frend here, to prevent in some degree 
this latter inconvenience, requires, that the word of this 
greatest part, which he will allow to be fit to be authorised, 
must have been uttered by them clearly, often, and 
constantly ; and then, and not till then, does he allow 
them for certain and undoubted truth. And now you see 
he is got into another hold. For I wish to be informed, 
how it is possible for us to know whether these Fathers 
whom we thus have called out of their graves to give us 
their judgment on the controversies in religion, affirmed 
those things which we find in their writings, clearly, 
often, and constantly, or not ? If in this his pretended 
council of doctors, you will not allow the right of giving 
their suffrage to those, of whom it may be doubted that 
they either expressed themselves obscurely, or gave in 
their testimonies but seldom, or have but weakly main- 
tained their own opinion ; I pray you tell me, whom 
shall we have left at last to be the judges in the decision 
of our present controversies ? 

As for the Apostle's creed, and the determinations of 
the four first general councils, (which are assented to, 
and approved by all the Protestant party), I confess we 
may, by this way of trial, allow them as competent 
judges in these matters. But as for all the rest, it is 
evident, from what has been stated in the First Part of 
this treatise, that we can never admit of them, if they 
are thus to be qualified, and to have all the afore-men- 
tioned conditions. We may therefore very safely con- 
clude, that the expedient here proposed by this author 
is either impossible, or not safe to be reduced to prac- 
tice 5 and I shall therefore rather approve of St. Augus- 
tin's judgment, as regards the authority of the Fa- 
thers. 

I should not have insisted so long upon the examina- 
tion of this proposal, had I not seen it to have been in such 

k 5 



202 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES 

high esteem with many men, and also with some of 
the learned.* For after St. Augustin and St. Hierome 
have delivered their judgments, it matters not much what 
this man shall have believed to the contrary. Yet 
before we finish this point, let us a little examine this 
author, both by St. Augustin's and by his own rule 
before laid down. 

St. Augustin considers us not bound to believe the 
saying of any author, except he can prove to us the 
truth of it, either by the canonical Scriptures or by some 
probable reason. What text of Scripture, or what rea- 
son has this man alleged to prove the truth of what 
he has proposed ? So that whatever his opinion be, he 
must not take it amiss, if, according to the advice and 
practice of St. Augustin, we take leave to dissent from 
him : especially considering we have so many reasons 
to reject that which he, without any reason given, would 
have us to receive. 

Thus you see that, according to the judgment of St. 
Augustin, the saying of this Vincentius Lirinensis, 
although you should class him among the most eminent 
of the Fathers, does not at all oblige us to give our 
assent unto it. And yet you will find that his testimony 
would be yet of much less force and weight, if you but 
examine the man by his own rule. For according to 
him, we are not to hearken to the Fathers, except they 
both lived and taught piously and wisely, even unto the 
hour of their death. Who is there now that will pass 
his word for him, that he himself was one of this num- 
ber ? Who shall assure us, that he was not either a 
heretic himself, or at least a favourer of heretics ? For 
is it not evident enough, that he favoured the Semi- 
Pelagians, who at that time swarmed in France, railing 
against the very name and memory of St. Augustin -, 
and who were condemned by the whole Church ? Who 
cannot easily see this, by his manner of discourse in 
his Commonitorium tending this way ;f where he seems 
to intimate unto us underhand, that Prosper and Hilary 
had unjustly slandered them ; and that Pope Celestine, 

* Perron, Cassander, ike. 

t Vincent. Lirin in Comra. 2. c. 43. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 203 

who also wrote against them, had been misinformed ?* 
May not he also be strongly suspected of having been 
the author of those "Objections" made against Prosper, 
which are called Objectiones Vincentiance, (Vincent's Ob- 
jections)^ The great commendations also which are 
given him by Gennadius, very much confirm this sus- 
picion ; X it being clear that this author was of the same 
sect : as appears plainly by the great account he makes 
of Ruffinus, a priest of Aquilea, who was the Grand 
Patriarch of the Pelagians, saying, " that he was not 
the least part of the doctors of the Church $" tacitly 
reproaching St. Hierome his adversary, and calling him, 
" a malicious slanderer :" and also by the judgment 
which he gives of St. Augustin, who was flagellum 
Pelagianorum, (the scourge of the Pelagians) ;§ passing 
this insolent censure upon him, and saying, u that in 
speaking so much, it had happened to him, what the 
Holy Ghost hath said by Solomon, That in the 
multitude of words there wanteth not sin."|| 

Thus I cannot sufficiently wonder at the boldness of 
cardinal'Perron, who when he has any occasion for quot- 
ing this author, usually calls him, " St. Vincent de 
Lerins/' (Saint Vincent of Lerins) ; thus by a very bad 
example canonizing a person who was strongly suspect- 
ed to have been a heretic. ^[ Since therefore he was 
such, why should any one think it strange that he should 
so much laud the judgment and opinions of the Fathers, 
— seeing that there is no man but knows that the Pela- 
gians and Semi-Pelagians had the better of it, by citing 
their authorities, — and laboured by this means to run 
down St. Augustin's name ; and all this forsooth, only 
by reason that the greatest part of the Fathers, who 
lived before Pelagius's time, and delivered themselves 
with less caution than they might have done, on those 
points which were by him afterwards brought into 
question ; and many times too in such strange expres- 

* Celestinus apud Aug. 1. 2, Contr. Felag. et Celest. c. 3. 

f Prosper. Resp. ad Object. Vincent. 

X Gennad. in Catal. in Ruff, inter Op. Hieron. 

§ Gennad. ubi supra. 

|| Proverb. 10, 19. 

% Du Perron, en la Repliq. au Roy de la Grand Brit, passim. 



204 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST THEMSELVES. 

sions, as will scarcely be reconciled to any orthodox 
sense ? 

Yet notwithstanding, should we allow this Vincentius 
to have been a person who was thus qualified, and to 
have had all those conditions, which he requires in a 
man, to render him capable of being attended to in this 
particular; what weight, I would ask, ought this pro- 
posal of his to carry with it, which yet is not found any 
where in the mouth of any of those Fathers who pre- 
ceded him ; who is also strongly contradicted both by 
St. Augustin and St. Hierome, as we have seen in those 
passages before adduced from them : and who besides, 
is full of obsure passages and inexplicable ambiguities ? 

Thus, however learned and holy a man he might be ; 
whether he were a bishop, confessor, or martyr (which 
he was not), this proposal of his (according to his own 
maxims) ought to be excluded from the authority of 
public determinations, and to be accounted only as 
his own particular private opinion.* Let us therefore in 
this business rather follow the judgment of St. Augus- 
tin, which is grounded upon evident reason, — a person 
whose authority (whenever it shall be questioned) will 
be found to be incomparably greater than that of Vin- 
centius Lirinensis : and let us not henceforth give credit 
to any sayings or opinions of the Fathers, save only 
those, the truth of which they shall have made evident 
to us, either by the cononical books of Scripture, or by 
some probable reason. 

* Vincent. Lirin. Common. I. c. 39, ubi super. 



THE FATHERS NO AUTHORITY. 205 



CHAPTER III. 

REASON III. THAT THE FATHERS HAVE WRITTEN IN 

SUCH A MANNER, AS TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT WHEN 
THEY WROTE THEY HAD NO INTENTION OF BEING 
OUR AUTHORITIES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION • AS 
EVINCED BY EXAMPLES OF THEIR MISTAKES AND 
OVERSIGHTS. 

Whoever takes the pains diligently to consider the 
manner of writing by the Fathers, will not require any 
other testimony for the proof of the above truth. For 
the very form of their writings witnesses clear enough, 
that in the greatest part of them they had no intention 
of delivering such definitive sentences, as were to be 
binding, merely by the single authority of the mouth 
which uttered them : but their purpose was rather to 
communicate unto us their own meditations on divers 
points of our religion ; leaving us free to our own 
liberty of examining them, and to approve or reject the 
same, according as we saw proper. Thus has St. Hie- 
rome expressly delivered his mind, as we shewed before, 
where he speaks of the nature and manner of commen- 
taries on the Holy Scriptures. And certainly if they 
had had any other design or intention, they would ne- 
ver have troubled themselves, as they usually do, in 
gathering together the several opinions of other men. 
This diligence, I confess, is laudable in a teacher, but it 
would be very ridiculous in a judge. Their style also 
should be entirely of another kind : and those obscurities 
which we have observed in the former part of this trea- 
tise, proceeding either from the rhetorical ornaments 
or the logical subtilties which they adopt, should have 
no place here. For what use would there be of any 
such thing in pronouncing a sentence of judgment, or 
indeed in giving one's bare testimony only to anything ? 



206 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 

But that which makes the truth of this our assertion 
more clearly to appear than all the rest, is the little 
care and diligence that they took, in composing the 
greatest part of these writings of theirs, which we would 
now wish to be the rules of our faith. If these men, 
who were endued with such sanctity, had had any in- 
tention of prescribing to posterity a true and perfect 
tenour and rule of faith, is it probable that they would 
have gone carelessly to work, in a business of such 
great importance ? Would they not rather have gone 
upon it with their eyes opened, their judgments settled, 
their thoughts fixed, and every faculty of their soul at- 
tentively bent upon the business in hand 5 for fear 
lest, in a business of so great weight as this, something 
might chance to fall from them, not so becoming their 
own wisdom, or so suitable to the people's advantage ? A 
judge, that had but ever so little conscience, would not 
otherwise give sentence concerning the oxen, the field, 
and the gutters of Titius and Maevius. How much 
more is the same gravity and deliberation requisite here, 
where the question is on the faith, the souls, and the 
eternal salvation of all mankind ? It were clearly there- 
fore the greatest injury that could be offered to these 
holy persons, to imagine that they would have taken 
upon them to have passed judgment in so weighty a 
cause as this, but with the greatest care and attention 
that could be. Now it is very evident, on the other side, 
that in very many of those writings of theirs, which 
have come down to our hands, there seems to be very 
much negligence ; or, to speak a little more tenderly of 
the business, assurance at least, both in the invention, 
method, and elocution. If therefore we tender the 
reputation either of their honesty or wisdom, we ought 
rather to say, that their design in these books of theirs, 
was not to pronounce definitively upon this particular, 
neither are their writings judiciary sentences or final 
judgments, but are rather discourses of a far different 
nature, occasioned by divers emergent occurrences ; and 
are more or less elaborate, according to the time, judg- 
ment, age, and disposition they were of, when they wrote 
them. Now although this want of diligence and of 
deliberation, appears of itself evident enough to any one 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 20/ 

that reads the Fathers with the least attention ; yet 
notwithstanding, that I may not leave this assertion of 
mine unproved, I shall here give you some few instances 
merely as a sample. 

First of all, there are very many pieces among the 
works of the Fathers, which were written in haste ; and 
some too, which were mere extemporary discourses, 
and such as, in all probability, their authors them- 
selves would have found many things therein, which 
would have required correction, had they had but 
leisure to have reviewed the same. 

St. Hierome, in a prologue to certain Homilies of Ori- 
gen, translated by him into Latin, says that Origen com- 
posed and delivered them in the Church extempore.* 
As to these, therefore, we are well satisfied by St. Hie- 
rome ; but how many, in the meantime, may there be 
of the like nature, among those numerous Homilies 
of St. Chrysostom, St. Augustin, and others -, all 
which we perhaps imagine to have been leisurely and 
deliberately studied, digested, and composed, which yet 
some sudden occasion might perhaps have put forth 
into the world on the instant, and which were as soon 
born as conceived, and as soon published as made ? 

St. Hierome often tells us, that he dictated what he 
wrote in haste. Thus at the end of that long epistle 
which he wrote to Fabiola, he confesses, " that he had 
despatched it in one evening only, when he was about 
to set sail for a journey/'f And (which is a matter 
of much more importance) he says in another place, 
u that he had allotted himself but three days for the 
translating of the three books of Solomon ; namely, the 
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Canticles \% which yet a 
man will hardly be able to read over well and exactly 
in a month, by reason of the great difficulties he will 
there meet with, as well in the words and phrases as in 
the sense. Yet for all these (which the Church of Rome 
pretends to be true) this little three-days , work of St. 

* Hier. Prol. in Horn. Orig. in Ies. Nau. 
* f Hier. Ep. 128, adFabiol. t. 3, vid. et in Epitaph. Marcel. Epist. 
16, extr. 

£ Itaque &c. tridui opus noraini vestro consecravi, interpreta- 
tionem videlicet trium Salomonis voluminum.— Id. Prcef. in Prov. 



208 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 

Hierome has proved so fortunate, as to deserve, not 
only to be approved and highly esteemed, but even ca- 
nonized also by the council of Trent. 

Now whether the will of God be, that we should re- 
ceive this translation of his as his pure word or not, I 
leave to those who have a desire and ability to examine. 
However I dare confidently affirm that St. Hierome 
himself never had the least thought or hope that this 
piece of his should one day come to this honour ; 
it being a thing not to be imagined, that he would 
have taken both more time and more pains in the 
matter, if ever he had desired or foreseen this. Thus 
it sometimes happens, that men have better fortune 
than ever they wished for. The same author says, 
at the end of another production of his, " That it was 
an extemporary and running business, (as he there 
speaks), and huddled out so fast, that his tongue overran 
the hands of his amanuensis, and by its volubility and 
swiftness, in manner confounded them and their ciphers 
andabbreviations,"* Heelsewhere excuses in like manner 
another work of his, of no small importance (his Com- 
mentary upon the Gospel of St. Matthew), telling us, 
that as he had been straitened in time, he was con- 
strained to dictate it in very great haste. So likewise in 
the preface to his second commentary upon the Epistle 
of St. Paul to the Ephesians, he confesses that he 
wrote it in such great haste, that he many times made 
as much of it as came to a thousand lines in a day. In 
a word, that I may not cloy the reader with producing 
all the instances of the same kind, that I could here ad- 
duce, it is his ordinary way of excusing himself, either in 
prefaces, or else at the closing up of all his discourses, 
to say that either the messenger was in haste, or some 
design called him away ; or else some other similar cause 
was pretended. So that he never did anything but in 
haste, and at full speed. Sometimes again, either some 
sickness had taken him off his metal j or else the 
study of the Hebrew had let his tongue grow rusty, or 
his pen was not able to exert its wonted power. 

* Extemporalis est dictatio, et tantaad lumen lucemulae facilitate 
profusa, ut notariorum manus lingua pnecurreret, et signa ac furta 
verborum volubilitas sermonum obrueret — Id. Ejy. 47. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 209 

Now I would fain know (if he would have us receive 
all his sayings as oracles, and did not indeed desire us 
to excuse rather some things in him, and to forgive him 
in others,) why he should use these speeches ? Who 
ever heard a judge excuse himself on account of the 
shortness of the time r Would not this be rather to 
accuse than to excuse himself, by making such an apo- 
logy as this for himself 5 forasmuch as giving an over 
hasty judgment in any cause, is a very great fault? In 
my opinion the Fathers could not more clearly have de- 
prived themselves of this dignity of being our judges, 
with which we will invest them, whether they will or 
not, than by writing and speaking after this manner. But 
yet, although St. Hierome had not given us these adver- 
tisements, which yet ought to make us look well also to the 
rest of the Fathers, it appears evidently enough, out of 
their very writings themselves, how little both time and 
diligence they bestowed, in composing the greatest part 
of them. For otherwise how could so many small tri- 
fling faults, both in history, grammar, philosophy, and 
the like, have escaped such great and eminent persons, 
who were so well furnished with all sorts of literature ? 
How happened it, that they thus either forgot or else 
mistook themselves as they have sometimes done ? 

I shall here give the reader some few examples of this 
kind, not to withhold the praises due to these learned 
persons, as if we thought them really to have committed 
these errors out of ignorance, but rather to let the world 
see, that they did not always make use of their whole store 
of worth and learning ; and that sometimes they either 
could not, or else would not,, make use but of some part 
only of their knowledge, and of their time 5 which is a 
most certain argument, that they had never any inten- 
tion of being received by us as judges in points of faith. 

I shall not say much on their errors in matters of 
time, which are both very notorious and very frequent 
with them : as, for example, where Justin Martyr says 
that, " David lived fifteen hundred years before the 
manifestation of the Son of God ;" — Aa/3t3 ereai x L ^ LOl £ 
kcu irEvraKOGioiQ irpiv rj yjpia-ov ay6pu)7rov yevofievov 
aravpiodrfyai, ra 7rpoeipr]fjLeva i(pr} :* it being very apparent, 

* Just. Apol. 



210 



THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 



by observing the course of times, derived through his- 
tory both sacred and profane, that from the death of 
David to the birth of our Saviour Christ, there elapsed 
no more than a thousand and twenty-five or thirty years, 
or thereabouts. So likewise, when Epiphanius writes, 
Si that Moses was but thirty years old when he brought 
forth the children of Israel out of Egypt :" — f O h Majvcr^g 
iv tu X avrov etel naTEi Ttjv ipvdpav daXaaaav, djia I(rpar}\- 
LTaig e% AtyviTTov e&wv :* whereas the Scriptures clearly 
testify, that he w T as four-score years of age. And also 
where he affirms, " That the taking of the city of Jeru- 
salem happened sixty-five years after the Passion of our 
Saviour Christ: — YEyovEv 77 Eprjfiojffig ' lpoaoXv jxujv fXEra 

E^TJKOCTTOy TTEjlTTTOV ETOQ T7)Q XpLfTTOV (TTCLVpOJOTEiOg KCU i]fJLEpag 

rivac.\ 

Truly the chronology of the ancients is generally very 
strange, and for the most part very far wide of the truth, 
as hath been observed, and also proved at large, by all 
the moderns 5 as Scaliger, Petavius, and others. But 
these matters are so very difficult, that oftentimes the 
most diligent inquiries into them may chance to mis- 
take : I shall therefore forbear to insist any longer upon 
this particular j and shall now lay before you some ex- 
amples of another nature, and such as shall most evi- 
dently discover the security and negligence of these 
authors. 

Justin Martyr, speaking of the translation of the 70 
Interpreters, says " that Ptolemy king of Egypt sent 
his ambassadors to Herod king of Judea," — (Ote h 
TiToXE/xaiog b AlyvKTtiov fiacriXEvg jjijjXioQriKrjv KciTEGKEva- 

<X£, &C. 7rpoaE7TEIJi\pE TO) TO)V lovEcilOJX' TOTE fjCMTlXEVOVTl UpojSrj 

ajtwv, CLawEjjicpdr) vat clvto) Tag (itjoXovg tojv 7rpo(pr]T£iii)p) -,X 
whereas the truth of the story is, that he sent to Eleazar 
the high priest, two hundred forty and odd years before 
Herod was king of Judca. 

Epiphanius tells us, in two or three places, that the 
Peripatetics and Pythagoreans were one and the same 
sect of heathen philosophers ; § which yet were as much 

* Epiphan. in Ancor. num. 112. 

f Epiphan. 1. de. Ponder, et Mens. num. 12. 

t Justin. Mart. Apol. 2. 

§ Epiphan* in Paenar. lib. l, et Anaceph. p. 127, 127, 133. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 211 

different one from the other, as the Stoics and Epicu- 
reans were 3 as every child knows. The same author also 
confidently affirms, though contrary to the faith of all an- 
cient history, that the several sects and opinions in philo- 
sophy sprang from some certain mysteries brought to 
Athens by Orpheus and others ;** and that the Stoics 
believed the immortality and transmigration of souls ;f 
both of which are as false, the one as the other : and 
likewise that Nebuchadonosor sent a colony into the 
country about Samaria, after the taking of Jerusalem )\ 
whereas, in truth, it was Salmanassar who had so done, 
long before the other's time. What can you think of 
him, when you find him mistaken in such things, as 
happened not many years before he was born : as when 
he says that Arius died before the council of Nice ;§ and 
when he relates the story of Meletius and his schism al- 
together contrary to the truth. 

Justin Martyr likewise assures us, as a certain truth, 
that in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, there was 
erected at Rome a statue to Simon Magus, in the river 
Tiber, between the two bridges, with this inscription : 
"to the holy GOD simon:" — 'Oc (liLjjLwv) iv rrj iroXei 
fiacriXi^L 'PiOfjtrj Oeog ivojjiMjdr}, kcll av^ptavTi 7rap* vjjlwv ojq 
Qeoq TETLfArjraL' 6g avSpiag dvrjyeyeprai kv ray Ttfiepi 7rora/xw, 
fiera^v T(ov Svo yetyvpwv, i%(*>v £7TLypa(f)r]v 'FojfjLaucrjv rav- 
tt]v litfiiovi Sea) aayKTO) :|| whereas, as our learned cri- 
tics now inform us, it was only an inscription to one 
of the Pagan demigods, in those words, " semoni deo 
sanco ;^[ which this good Father mistook ; instead of 
Semoni, reading Simoni ; and for Sanco reading Sancto. 

Eusebius says,*"* and St. Hierome frequently repeats I 
it after him,ff that Josephus, the Jewish historian, re- I 
porteth, that at the time of our Saviour's passion the \ 
heavenly powers forsook the temple of Jerusalem ; and 

* Id. contr. Hseres. 1.1. t Id.Haer. 5. 

X Id. Panar. 1. l. § Id. Haer. Arian. 69. num. 

|| Just. Mart. Apol. 2. 
% Desider. Herald, in Apol. Tertul. 
**Euseb. in Chron. et 'An-oSeif. 8. p. 250. 

ft Hier. ep. 150, Hedibiae Comment. 4. in Matth. ep. 17, quae 
est Paul, et Eustoch. 



212 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 

that there was a great noise heard, and a voice saying, 
MerafiapwiJLev evtevQev, " Let us depart hence ;" and yet 
nevertheless the truth of the story is, that Josephus 
reported this to have happened at the time the city 
was besieged ; that is to say, above thirty-five years 
after the death of our Saviour. 

The same authors, and in a manner all others after 
them,* have constantly delivered, as a certain truth, that 
Philo Judaeus, in that book of his entitled " De Vita Con- 
templativa" describes unto us the manner of life of the 
Christian Ao^r/rcu, or Monks ; and yet that book of Philo, 
which we have at this day under this title, proclaims 
loud enough, that he there speaks not of the Christians 
but of the Essenes, who were one of the three sects 
among the Jews ; as hath been observed by Scaliger, 
and various others after him.f We have noticed how 
St. Ambrose. J without giving us any account of his 
reasons why he does so, understands by Gog and Magog, 
mentioned in Ezekiel xxiii., the nations of the Goths, 
who in his time overran all Christendom. He tells us 
in another place, with the very same confidence, that 
Zacharias,§ the father of John the Baptist, was high priest 
of the Jews 5 which yet Baronius has clearly proved to 
be false. (I 

Thus you see how little the later writers are beholden 
to those that preceded them. As to this particular, Epi- 
phanius affirms that Pison, which was one of the four 
rivers that watered the terrestrial Paradise, mentioned 
by Moses, " was the same that the Indians and Ethio- 
pians call Ganges, and the Greeks Indus : which river, 
passing at length through Ethiopia, discharges itself 
at last into the ocean at Gades :" — Kcu Qehjuv \lev ivnv 
a Yayyqc irapa tolq 'Yvcolq KaXovfiEvog kcu Aldiox^iy' 'EW77- 

VEQ KCLL TOVTOV KokoWLV lrCOV TTOTafXOV, &C SiaWEpq. Se TX\V 

\iEya\y)v Aldioiriav, Kai cvel e<ju)0ev TadEipav elg rov p.Eyav 

UjKECLVOV^ 

• Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 2. c. 15, 16. Hier. lib. de Script. 
Eccles. 

f Scalig.de Emend. Temp. 66. c. 1. 

X Ambros. 1. 2, de fide ad Gratian. 

§ Ambros. Comment, in Luc. 
[• || Baron, in Apparat. num. 69. ^ Ephiphan. in Ancor. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 213 

What wonderful strange geography have we got here, 
(if at least we may call it by this name), which jumbles 
together the east and the west, and confounds and 
makes the same places which are very near a whole he- 
misphere distant from each other. 

St. Basil also, who is otherwise an excellent author, 
has mistaken likewise, though not so much, the course 
of the river Danube 3 for he has only made it to spring 
out of the Pyrennean mountains: — 'Atto Se cvafjaov 
T(ov depiviov vno to Hvpprjvawv opog TaprrjffOQ re, Kai 
'loTpoc.* 

Speaking of those rivers reminds me, that all the 
Fathers f unanimously understand by Gihon (one of 
the rivers of Paradise,) the river Nilus, which has so 
deceived cardinal Perron also,J that he delivers it to 
us as the express text of the Scriptures ; by this means 
making it guilty of a manifest absurdity, however in- 
nocent in itself it be, and free from intending any such 
thing j seeing that it is evident that neither in the 
Hebrew, Greek, nor Latin text, is it ever said that the 
river Nile watered the land of Paradise ; it being only a 
dream of the Fathers, that one of these rivers of Para- 
dise must needs have been the Nile ; though this fancy 
of theirs (as Scaliger makes it appear, § and as it is 
confessed by Petavius also, ||) is built upon no ground or 
reason at all. 

Neither has their philosophy been less wonderful than 
their geography : as for example, when Tertullian 
maintains,1T that plants are endued both with sense and 
understanding. So likewise where Epiphanius holds,"** 
that it is possible for a dead man to return to life again, 
without the reunion of the soul to the body. As 
also where St. Ambrose says that the sun, to the 
end he may allay his extreme heat, refreshes himself 



* Basil. Horn. 3. in Isa. 

f Theoph. Antioch. 1. 2. Ambros. 1. de Parad. c. 3. Epist. Panar. 
hser. 66. Hieron. de locis Hebr. voc. Geon, alii. 
X Du Perron en sa Repr. p. 950. 
§ Scalig. de Emend. Temp. 

|| Peta. in Epiph. p. 371. f Tertul. 1. de Act. c. 19. 

** Epiphan. in Ancor. num. 90. 



214 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 

with the nourishment which he draws up from the 
waters : and that from hence it is, that we sometimes 
see him appear as it were all over wet, and dropping 
with dew. * 

Again, where you have some of them entertaining 
the doctrine of the spherical figure of the heavens 
with very great scorn -, and maintaining, that it is only, 
as it were, an arch which is built upon the waters as on 
its base, f Others of them you have, who will not 
endure to hear of the earth being of a round, spherical 
figure, or of the Antipodes 3 and account those men 
little less than infidels, who shall offer to maintain any 
such opinions. J 

But these are not bare mistakes and oversights only : 
but are rather errors which proceeded from the want of 
a due examination and a right apprehension of things. 
As for their grammatical errors, they are more frequent 
and usual with them than any other : and the reason of 
their so often mistaking here, is the little knowledge 
they had in the Hebrew tongue : as, for instance, when 
Optatus, and some others of them, deduce the name 
Cephas from the Greek Ke<pa\n, which signifies a head :§ 
whereas Cepha is a Syriac word, and signifies a stone, 
as the Evangelist expressly testifies. || St. Ambrose is 
in the like manner mistaken, where he derives the word 
Pascha, which is of Hebrew extraction, and which sig- 
nifies properly a passing, from a Greek word signify- 
ing to suffer ; ^f in which etymology he is faithfully 
followed by Pope Innocent III., in an oration of his, 
which he made at the opening of the council of 
Lateran.** 

* Frequenter solem videmus madidum, at que rorantem, in quo 
evidens dat indicium quod alimentum sibi aquarum ad temperiem 
sui sumpserit Ambrose Hexaetn. L 2. c. 3. 

f Justin. Quest, et Respons. Qu. 130. ad Autolyc. 

J Lactant. Instit. 1.3. c. 34. August, de Civit. Dei, 1. 16. c. 9. 

§ Omnium Apostolorum caput Petrus, unde et Cephas appellatus 
est. — Optat. I. 2. contr. Don. 

|| Joan. 1. 42. 

«j Quod quidem sacrum nomen ab ipsius Domini passione descen- 
dit — Ambros. 1. de Patch* c. 1. 

** Innoc. III. Ser. I. in Concil. Later. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 215 

We have heretofore noticed some errors of theirs of this 
nature, observed by St. Hierome, to whom the Church 
is very much obliged, both for the great pains that he 
took in endeavouring to attain to so deep a knowledge 
of the Hebrew tongue ; and also for the great courage he 
had in taking the liberty to himself, of freely noting all 
such impertinences, whenever he met with them -, who 
or however great the authors of them were. 

All the rest of the Fathers, a very few only excepted, 
do here as it were only grope their way in the dark : 
and hence it is that we have so many wild etymologies 
given by them of the proper names we meet with in 
the Scriptures. Who can read without amazement, 
that which Irenseus has delivered on the derivation of 
the name of Jesus ; which he will have to be composed 
of two letters and a half 5* adding moreover, that in 
the ancient language of the Hebrews it signifies the 
heavens, notwithstanding that the angel expressly tes- 
tified at the very beginning of St. Matthew's gospel, 
that our Saviour Christ was called Jesus, because " He 
was to save his people from their sins."f 

Of the like nature is that where he saith, " That the 
name of God, Adonai, signifies wonderful: or if you 
write thus, Addhonei, it then signifies Him that bound- 
eth and separateth the earth from the water." The 
like etymologies does he give us of the word Sabaoth, 
and of Jaoth. Similar to these are those mysteries of 
which he informs us, in the afore-cited treatise of his, 
which no author else, either ancient or modern, ever 
heard of : % telling us that Barneth is the name of God in 
Hebrew ; and that' the first and most ancient Hebrew 
letters, which were called Sacerdotales, were only ten in 
number, and were w r ritten five different ways. 

Out of the same storehouse has Clemens Alex- 
andrinus produced us that precious etymology which 
he h? 6 ; given of the name of Abraham, saying, " It is, 



* Jesus autem nomen secundum propriam Hebraeorum linguam, 
literarum est duarum et dimidise, &c. — Iren. contr. Hcer, I. 2. c. 41. 
f Matth. 1. 12. Iren. 1.2. c. 66. 
1 Id. ibid. 



216 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 

by interpretation, The elect father of a sound" 'Ep/invevs- 
rcu [inv yap, 7rarr)p ekKsktoq iyovc :* and that other of the 
name Rebecca, which he will have to signify The Glory of 
God, Pe/SefC/ca h epjAnveveTai, deov Sofa.f 

St. Hilary says, that Selwn signifies a fruitless tree.% 
But St. Hierome informs us,§ that St. Hilary, under- 
standing nothing of the Hebrew, and being not so very 
excellent in Greek either, was glad to make use of a 
certain priest, named Heliodorus, to interpret to him out 
of Origen whatever he himself understood not ; who, 
not discharging his trust sometimes so faithfully as he 
should have done, was the cause of this Father's com- 
mitting certain errors of this nature, in his Commen- 
taries. 

Theophilus Antiochenus says, that before Melchise- 
dec's time, the city of Jerusalem was called Hieroso- 
lyma ;\\ but that afterwards it was called Hierusalem, 
from him ; which is a very strange fancy of his, and 
such a one as it is no very easy matter to guess what 
ground he should have for it. 

What strange dreams does St. Ambrose entertain 
his readers with,^[ when he expounds the names of 
Chorali, and of Oreb ; the one whereof with him signifies 
the understanding, and the other, the whole heart, or, as 
the heart : and thus likewise in his exposition of the 
1 18th Psalm,** where he gives us the meaning of each of 
the Hebrew letters with w T hich the first verses begin, of 
every one of the c 2.2 Octonaries, whereof the said 1 ISth 
Psalm, according to the Hebrew reckoning, consists. 
But he is by no means to be pardoned, ft where he is so 
much out in the Greek tongue, which he understood 
reasonably well, in deriving the word ovaia, essence, from 
act always, and ovaa being : which is such a gross mis- 
take, as would not have been pardoned to a school boy 
at a grammar school. 

* Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 4. t Id. p. 22. 

+ Scon infructuosse arboris interpretatio est.— Hier. Ps. 152. 

§ Hieron. Ep. 141, ad Marcell. 

|| Theoph. Vntioch. L 2. ad Autol. 

« Ainbros. Ep. 1. 10. Ep. S2. ** Arabros. in Psal. IIS. 

ft Id. lib. de Incarn. Dom. Sacr. c. 9. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 217 

As for St. Hierome, it is true that he is sometimes 
at this sport too -, though I should think he does it on 
purpose, and to make himself merry only, rather than 
any way mistaking himself : as for example, when he 
derives the Latin word Nugce, from the Hebrew *y\$ ISlo- 
ge* which you read in the prophet Zephaniah, cap. 3, 
verse 8. And so likewise when he searches in the He- 
brew, for the signification of Paul,f Philemon, Onesimus, 
Timothy, and other words which are purely Greek. 

Even in the very Scriptures themselves, which they 
were both better acquainted with, and which they also 
had in greater veneration than any other books whatever, 
they often mistake themselves in citing them. As, for 
example, when Justin Martyr adduces a passage out of 
the Prophet Zephaniah, I which is not found any where 
but in the Prophet Zechariah ; and in another place 
where he names Jeremiah instead of Daniel. § Thus 
likewise when St. Hilary tells us that St. Paul, in the 
13th chapter of the Acts, adduces a certain passage out 
of the first Psalm, which yet is found only in the second; || 
whereas St. Paul in that place speaks not one syllable 
of the first Psalm, but expressly names the second. So 
also when Epiphanius says, out of the 27th chapter, 
verse 37, of the Acts of the Apostles,^* that the number 
of those who were in the ship with St. Paul, when he 
suffered shipwreck, was one while 70, and by and bj 
80 souls ; whereas the text says expressly, that the\ 
were in all 276. Thus likewise when in another place 
he affirms, out of the Gospel, that our Saviour Christ 
said to his mother, " Touch me not;" — Ovtuj /cat 6 
KvptoQ hiera^ev kv to) evcLyyeXia), &C. (prjaaz rrj fjLrjrpt 
avrov, Mrj fiov cltttov :** whereas it appears plainly 
out of the text, that these words were spoken only 
to Mary Magdalene. So where St. Hierome takes 
great pains to reconcile a certain passage alleged 
by St. Hierome out of Habakkuk,ff to the original, tell- 

* Hier. in Sophon. c. 3. ver. 8. 
f Id. Comm. in ep. ad Philem. 
X Id. Apol. 2. § Id. ibid. 

II Hilar, in Psal. 2. fl Epiphan. in Ancor. 

** Id.inPanar. 1. 3, Haer. 80. j 

Qtt Hieron. Comm. 1, in Abac. 

L 



218 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 

ing us that St. Paul had cited it in these words, " The 
just shall live by my faith :" whereas it is most evident 
that the Apostle, both in the first chapter of the epistle 
to the Romans, and in the epistle to the Galatians, has 
it only thus : "The just shall live by faith," and not 
" The just shall live by my faith." 

Athanasius in his Synopsis, (or whoever else was the 
author of that piece) reckoning up the several books of 
Scriptures, evidently takes the third book of Esdras, 
which has been always accounted apocryphal by the 
common consent of all Christendom, for the first, which 
is received by all Christians and Jews into the canon 
of the Scriptures. We might class in this number (if 
at least so foolish a piece deserve to have any place 
among the writings of the Fathers) that gross mistake 
which we meet with in an epistle of Pope Gregory II. 
who rails fiercely against Uzziah for breaking the brazen 
serpent ; calling him, for this act, iC The brother of the 
Emperor Leo the Iconoclast :"* which, as he thought, 
was the same as to reckon him among the most mischie- 
vous and wretched princes that ever had been j and yet 
all this while the Scripture tells us, that this was the 
act, not of Uzziah, but of the good king Hezekiah 3 and 
that he deserved to be rather commended for the same 
than blamed. 

As for their slips of memory, he had need of a very 
happy one himself, who should undertake to enumerate 
them all. For example, St. Ambrose tells us somewhere, 
that the eagle on dying is revived again out of her own 
ashes. f Who sees not, that in this place he would 
have said the pheenix ? In another place however, 
giving us an account of the story of the phoenix, as it 
is commonly delivered, he says that " This we have 
learned from the authority of the Scriptures. "J By a 
like mistake it was that he athrmed, that these words, 
u For this very purpose have I raised thee up, that I 



* Greg. II. in Ep. ad Leon. Isaur. <lc col. Imag. 

f Quod etiam aquila, cum turrit mortua, ex suis reliquiis renas- 
catur. — Ambros. /. 2, de Panit, c. 2. 

X Atqui hoc relatione crebra, et Scripturarum authoritate cogno- 
vimus, memoratam avem, &c — Id, lib* de fid* Resur, 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 2] 9 

might shew my power in thee/'* were spoken to Moses ; 
to whom, notwithstanding, the Lord never said any such 
word, but rather to Pharaoh. In like manner does he 
attribute to the Jews those words in the 9th chapter of 
St. John, which were indeed spoken by Christ's disci- 
ples, who asked him, saying, " Master, who did sin, this 
man or his parents, that he was born blind ?"t I im- 
pute that other mistake of his to the heat of his rhetoric, 
where he brings in one of the seven brethren in the 
Maccabees, \ who suffered under king Antiochus -, and 
makes him, in his height of gallantry, adduce the exam- 
ple of John and of James, " the sons of thunder/' two 
of our Saviour Christ's Apostles, who came not into the 
world, as every one knows, till a long time after this. 

It was a slip of memory also in Tertullian, where he 
tells us, " that the Lord said to Moses, They have not 
rejected thee, but they have rejected me :"§ which words 
were indeed spoken to Samuel, and not to Moses." || 

St. Hierome also was misled in like manner, when he 
tells us, " that none of the Fathers ever understood the 
word knew, in the last verse of the first chapter of St. 
Matthew, otherwise than of the conjugal act ;^[ not re- 
membering, that his own dear friend Epiphanius takes 
the word in a quite different sense, and will have the 
meaning of the place to be, iC that Joseph, before the 
miraculous birth of our Saviour Christ, knew not what 
glory and excellency was to befall the blessed virgin ;" 
knowing nothing else of her before, save only that she 
was the daughter of Joachim, and of Anna, and cousin 
to Elizabeth, who was of the house of David : — 'AW' 
OfXiog iyvio rrjv Mapta/x 6 Idjarj^, ov Kara yvwcriv riva 
yj}r)(JE(i)Q) ov Kara yrbxjiv KOLvwvtag, a\\' iypio dvrrjv, tijulojv 

T7)V EK TOV deOV TETl\ir\yL£VT)V m OV yCLQ TjSeL CLVTTjV TOiaVTYJQ So^TJQ 

* Denique iterum Moysi dicit, Quia in hoc ipsum resuscitavi, ut 
ostendam in te virtutem meam. — Ambros. ser. 10. 

f Quam stolidi autem Judaei qui interrogant, Hie peccavit, an pa- 
rentes ?— Ambros. Ep. I. 9, Ep. 75. 

% Id. 1. 2, de Sanct. Jacob, c. 11. 

§ Tertul. contr. Marc.l. 4, c. 24. || 1 Sara. 8. 

^f In quo primum adversarius superfluo labore desudat, cognos- 
cendi verbum ad coitum magis quam ad scientiam esse referendum, 

quasi hoc quisquam negaverit Hieron. I, co?itr. Helvid. 

L 2 



220 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 

ovaar :* whereas he at that time knew clearly that God 
had done him that honour of sending his angel to him, 
and of choosing his espoused wife Mary, to be the only 
woman on earth on whom he would confer that great 
and wonderful benefit and advantage above all others. 

But we intend not here to give an inventory of all the 
errors of this nature, which are to be found in the writ- 
ings of the ancients ; these specimens may sufficiently 
serve to shew what their whole productions are. I shall 
only add here, that besides this carelessness and assump- 
tion which is so common with them, in writing thus 
confidently whatsoever came into mind, or whatever 
others had delivered to them for sound and good, with- 
out ever examining it thoroughly ; they yet had another 
kind of custom, which seems not to suit so well with 
the characters of judges, as we would needs have them 
to be. And this is, that in their writings they are some- 
times so jocular and sportive : imposing on us such 
rare allegorical observations, as have scarcely any more 
solidity or body, than those castles of cards that little 
children are wont to make. These cardinal Perron 
calls des ga'wtes joyeuses, (frolicsome gaieties). f 

I know very well that allegories are useful, and many 
times also necessary : if they be but sound, clear, and 
well grounded. But I speak here only of such as wrest 
the text, and, as it were, drag it along by the hair, and 
make the sense of the Scripture evaporate in empty 
fumes. Of these are the writings of the Fathers full. 
St. Hierome often complains of the strange liberty that 
Origen and his disciples took herein. Certainly he him- 
self often indulges in this way; and whoever has a mindto 
see it, may read his 146th Epistle, where he expounds the 
parable of the Prodigal Son : J or let him but turn to the 
discourse which he has made on the genealogy of the 
prophet Zephaniah, concerning the city of Damascus, § 
and also upon the history of Abishag the Shunamite,|J 
and upon the five-and-twenty men and the two princes 

* Epiphan. in Panar. Hter. 78. Antidicom. 
| Perron's RepL p. 743, 

j Eiier. in ep. 146, ad Damaa. paene tot. 

$ Id. Comm. in Soph. || Id. en. ad. Nepot. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 2 C 21 

spoken of in Ezekiel, chap, xi.* and upon the destruc- 
tion of Tyre, of Egypt,f and of Assyria, J foretold by 
the same prophet j as also his subtle observations upon 
Numbers, and upon king Darius, § and upon that 
command of our Saviour Christ, || where he bids us turn 
the left cheek to him that hath smitten us on the right : 
and many other the like discourses of his. 

St. Hilary is so much taken with this manner of 
writing, that his expositions upon the Scripture are half 
full of these allegories,^" and to make himself the more 
work, he sometimes frames certain impossibilities and 
absurdities which he would make the Scripture seem to 
be guilty of, which yet it is not ; only that he may have 
some pretence to have recourse to his allegories.** As 
for example, in the 136th Psalm, he will needs have the 
letter of the text to be utterly inexplicable, where it says, 
that the Jews sat down by the rivers of Babylon, and 
hanged up their harps upon the willows : as if, in this 
country that was watered with the Tigris and Euphrates, 
there had been neither river, nor willow, nor any aquatic 
tree. 

The same author also demands,tf (as if it had been 
a most indissoluble question, if taken in the literal 
sense,) who the daughter of Babylon is ; and why she 
is called miserable? which is so easy a question, 
that any child almost might very easy resolve it, without 
torturing the text with allegories. So likewise, in his 
exposition of the 146th Psalm, he understands by the 
clouds, wherewith God is said to cover the heavens, 
the writings of the prophets ; and by the rain, which he 
prepares for the earth, the evangelical doctrine ; by 
the mountains which bring forth grass, the Prophets 
and Apostles 5 by the beasts, he understands men ; and 
by the young raven, the Gentiles ; assuring us withal, 
that it would not be only erroneous, but rather very 
irreligious to take these words in the literal sense.:}: J 

* Hier. Comm. 3. in Ezech. f Id. Comm. in Ezech. 

\ Id. Comm. 9. in eundem. § Id. Comm. 10. in eund. 

|| Id. Comm. in Agg. ^ Id. Comm. 1. in Math. 

** Id. in Ps. 136. tf Id. ibid. foL 108. 

ttJHaec ita intelligere,^non dicam erroris, sed irreligiositatis est 

Id. in Psal. 146. fol. 128^ 



222 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 

May not this be called rather sporting with than ex- 
pounding the Scriptures ? So likewise in another place, 
speaking of the fowls of the air, which our Saviour said 
neither reaped nor gathered into barns, he understands, 
by these, the devils ; and by the lilies of the field, which 
spin not, the angels.* 

I should much abuse the reader's patience, if I should 
set down the strange discourses he has upon the story 
of the two possessed with devils, who were healed by 
our Saviour in the country of the Gergesens ; and upon 
the leap which the devils made the neighbouring herd 
of swine take into the sea;t and of the swine-herds 
running away into the city, and of the citizens coming 
forth, and entreating our Saviour to depart out of their 
coasts : or if I should but give you the whole entire ex- 
position which he hath made of these words, vers. 29, 
chap. x. of St. Matthew : " Are not two sparrows sold 
for a farthing," &c.;§ where, by the two sparrows he un- 
derstands sinners, whose souls and bodies, having been 
made to fly upward and to mount on high, sell them- 
selves to sin for mere trifles and things of no value ; by 
this means becoming both as one, the soul by sin thicken- 
ing as it were into a body : with such other wild fancies, 
the reading of which would astonish a man of any judg- 
ment rather than edify him. 

Neither is St. Ambrose a whit more serious, when 
expounding those words of our Saviour, Matt. xvii. 
20 : u If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye 
shall say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder 
place," &c.§ By this mountain (saith St. Ambrose) is 
meant the devil." 

It would be too tedious a business, to set down here 
at length all that might be collected of this nature out 
of St. Ambrose : he that has a mind to see more ex- 
amples of this kind, may read but his homilies upon the 



* Id. Can. 5. in Matth. vi. 26. fol. 7. 

f Id. Can. 8. in Matth, viii. 2S. fol. 10. 

t Id, Can. 10. sol. 13. 

I Si habueritifl fidem sicut granum sinapis, dicetia buic monti, 
Tollerc ct jactare in mare. Huic ; Cui ? Daemonio iinniit, a quo 
iste invasus iucrat, fcc. — Ambroi. in Ps. 36. p, 503. Matth. xvii. 20. 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 223 

118th Psalm 3 which will indeed be otherwise very well 
worth any man's reading, as being a very excellent one, 
and full of eloquence and sound doctrine. Yet a man 
would find it a troublesome business to make any de- 
fence for him, where he ventures sometimes to use 
the sacred words of the Scripture in his own sportive 
fancies : as where he applies to Valentinian and Gratian 
that which is spoken of Christ and the Church in the 
Canticles : "Othat thou wert as my brother that sucked 
the breasts of my mother ! When I should find thee 
without, I would kiss thee, &c. I would lead thee, and 
bring thee into my mother's house, &c. I would cause 
thee to drink of spiced wine, and of the juice of my 
pomegranates. His left hand should be under my head, 
and his right hand should embrace me/'* 

" In this place," says he, " is meant the emperor 
Gratian of renowned memory, who tells his brother 
that he is furnished with the fruits of divers virtues." 
To the same purpose does he make application of divers 
other passages of this sacred Canticle ; and with such great 
licence, as, to say the truth, no poet ever dashed out 
with more liberty and freedom than he has done in that 
book. 

I shall here purposely pass by what I might produce of 
this nature, out of Gregory Nazianzen, St. Augustin, 
and almost all the rest of the Fathers : for what we 
have already brought is enough, and indeed more than 
w r e needed for our present purpose. Let the reader there- 
fore now judge whether or not the Fathers, by this their 
manner of writing, have not clearly enough attested 
against themselves, that their intention, when they 
wrote these their books, never was either to bound and 
determine our faith, or to decide our differences about 
the same. I must needs confess, that they were persons 
who were endued with very large gifts of the Spirit ; 
and with a most lively and clear understanding for 
diving into the truth. Yet those who have the greatest 

* Quis dabit te frater fratrem mihi, lactantem ubera matris meae ? 
&c. (Cant.viii. I.) Promittit fratri augustae memoriae, (Jratianus, prae- 
sto sibi fructus diversarum esse virtutum. — Id. tract, de Obit. Valent. 
p. 11, 12. 



224 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 

share of those gifts, have it to very little purpose, if 
they employ it not to the utmost of their power, when 
the business they are to treat of is of such great diffi- 
culty and importance ; and such as to the deciding and 
discussing of which we can never bring either more 
attention or diligence than is needful. 

Now that the Fathers have not observed this course 
in their writings appears clearly enough by what has 
been formerly said. Their books therefore are not to 
be received by us, either as definitive sentences, or 
final judgments upon our present controversies. 

I confess that these small trivial errors ought not to 
lessen the opinion we have of the greatness and versa- 
tility of their parts. I believe they might very easily 
have avoided falling into them, if they would but have 
taken the pains to look a little better about them. And 
I am of opinion that they fell into them merely by in- 
advertency only ; which may also sometimes happen 
even to the greatest masters in any sciences whatever. 
I shall as willingly also yield to you, (if you desire it,) 
that they have sometimes done these things purposely; 
letting fall here and there throughout their writings such 
little slips from their pen, sportively and by way of 
recreation ; or else from a design of exercising our 
ingenuity. 

But certainly, whatever the reason was, seeing that 
they had no intention to use any more care or 
diligence in the composing of their books ; we may very 
well, and indeed we ought to conclude from hence, 
that they had never any intention that these books of 
theirs should be our judges. 

These venial faults, these mistakes, these oversights, 
these inadvertencies, and these sportings of theirs, do 
sufficiently evidence, that we are to make our references 
to others ; and that they have not so seriously delivered 
their opinions as if they had sat on the seat of judgment, 
but rather have spoken as in their chamber, delivering 
their own private opinions only, and not in the capacity 
of judges. 

These considerations, joined to what has been said 
in this particular, by some of the chief and most eminent 



IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 225 

among themselves, as we have formerly shewn, make it 
appear in my judgment evident enough, that their own 
will and desire is, that we should not embrace their 
opinions as oracles, or receive them as definitive deci- 
sions ; but that we should rather examine them by the 
Scriptures and by reason : as being the opinions of doc- 
tors, who were indeed very able and excellent men 5 
but yet, notwithstanding, were still men, subject to 
error, and who had not always the good fortune to light 
upon what was true and sound : and who peradventure, 
even in this very case in hand, have not always done 
what they might, by reason of their employing either 
less time, or less care and diligence, than they should 
have done : if at least they had had any serious purpose 
of doing their utmost endeavour in this particular. 



L5 



226 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 



CHAPTER IV. 

REASON IV. THAT THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED IN 

DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION ; NOT ONLY SINGLY, 
BUT 'ALSO MANY OF THEM TOGETHER. 

I conceive that what has been stated in the two pre- 
ceding chapters is sufficient to make it appear to any 
moderate man, that the authority of the Fathers is not 
so authentic as people commonly imagine it to be. Thou 
therefore, whosoever thou art, if thou be but an indiffer- 
ent and impartial reader, mayest omit the reading of 
this and the following chapter 3 both which I must add, 
though much against my will, to answer all objections 
that may yet be made by perverse and obstinate persons. 
For the prejudice wherewith they are beforehand pos- 
sessed, may hinder them perhaps from seeing the clear- 
ness of reason, and from hearing the voice of the Fathers 
themselves ; whose words they perhaps will be ready to 
impute to their modesty, rather than they will consent 
to yield to them no more honour than they themselves 
require. The pertinacity therefore of these men, and 
not any need that thou hast of my doing so, has con- 
strained me to lay aside some of that respect that I bear 
towards antiquity ; and has obliged me to expose to 
view some errors of the Fathers, which are of much 
more importance than the former, if by this means at 
least I may be able to overcome their opposition. For 
when they shall but see that the Fathers have erred in 
many considerable points, I hope they will at length 
confess, that they had very good reason gravely to ad- 
vise us, not to believe, or take upon trust, any of their 
opinions, unless we find that they are grounded either 
upon the Scriptures, or else upon some other truth. 
I confess, I enter upon this inquiry very unwillingly, 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 227 

as taking very little pleasure in discovering the infirmi- 
ties and failings of any men, especially of such as are 
otherwise thought worthy of such great esteem and ho- 
nour : yet there is nothing in the world, however pre- 
cious or dear it be, that we ought not to account as 
dung, if compared with truth and the edification of men. 
And I am verily persuaded that even these blessed saints 
themselves, were they now alive, would give us thanks 
for the pains we have taken, in endeavouring to make 
the world see that they were but men -, and would ac- 
count themselves beholden to us, for having boldly un- 
dertaken the business of discovering those imperfections 
and failings of theirs, which Divine Providence has 
suffered them to leave behind them in their writings, 
to the end only that they might serve as so many argu- 
ments to us of their humanity. If there be any, notwith- 
standing, that shall take offence at it, I must entreat 
them once again to consider that the perverseness only 
of those men with whom I have to deal, has forced me 
to this irreverence, (if at least we are to call it so) toge- 
ther with the desire I have to manifest to the world so 
important a truth as this is. 

If I wished to defend myself by precedents, I could 
here make use of that of cardinal Perron ;* who, to jus- 
tify the Church of Rome's interdicting the reading of the 
Bible to any of the laity, except only such as should be 
allowed to do so, makes no more ado, but falls to lay- 
ing open to the view of the world (not all the fau Its, for 
there are no such there ; but) all the false appearances of 
faults that are found in the Bible, writing a whole chap- 
ter expressly on the subject. How much more lawfully 
then may we adventure here to expose to public view 
some few of the failings of the Fathers, unto whom we 
owe infinitely less respect than unto God -, if it be only 
to moderate a little, and to allay the heat of that exces- 
sive devotion which most men bear towards their writ- 
ings j that so the one party may be persuaded to seek 
out for some other weapons, than the authority of these 
men, for the defence of their opinions ; and that the 

* Du Perron, Repliq. J. 6, c. 6, p. 9*9. 



228 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 






other party may not so easily be induced to regard 
the bare testimony of antiquity ? 

It was the saying of a great prince long ago, that the 
vilest and most shameful necessities of his nature, were 
the things that most clearly convinced him that he was 
a man, and no God, as his flattering courtiers would 
needs have made him believe he was. Seeing there- 
fore that it behoves us so much to know that the Fathers 
were but men, let us not be afraid to produce here this 
argument so clear and evident of their humanity. Let 
us boldly enter into their most hidden secrets, and let 
us see whatever marks of their humanity they have left 
us in their writings, that we may no longer adore and 
reverence their authority, as if it were wholly divine. 

Yet I protest here, before I begin, that I will not take any 
advantage of those many arguments of their partial feel- 
ings which we meet withal, partly in their own writings, 
and partly in the histories of their life. I heartily wish 
rather, that all of this kind might be buried in an eternal 
oblivion, and that we would speak of them as of persons 
that were most accomplished for purity and innocence 
of life, as far, at least, as the frail condition of human 
nature can bear. I shall only touch upon the errors of 
their belief, and those things wherein they have failed, 
not in living but in writing. 

The most ancient of them all is Justin Martyr ; a man 
so renowed in all ancient histories for his great know- 
ledge, both in religion and philosophy; and also for the 
fervency of his zeal, which he so evidently manifested, by 
his suffering a glorious martyrdom for our Saviour Jesus 
Christ. Yet for all this, how many odd opinions do we 
meet with in his books, which are either very trivial, 
or else manifestly false ? Only hear how he speaks of 
the last times immediately preceding the day of 
judgment and the end of the world : — "As for me, 
(says he) and the rest of us that are true Christians, 
we know that there shall be a resurrection of the flesh, 
and that the Saints shall spend a thousand years in 
Jerusalem, which shall be rebuilt, enriched, and enlarged, 
as the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah, and others assure us : — 
T Eyoj Si Ken. el tli'ec eltflP vpOoyrufJiovti; Kara iravra XP LrT " 
tlclvoi, MM aapKog dvacrraoiv yEvr]Gt(jQai ETrtOTajjEOa Kai 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 229 

)(i\*a irrj iv 'lEpovaaXwfj oLKodojirjOcLffT], mi KoafiTjOeiffrj jccu 

irXarwdELGY), &C. 

To this purpose he cites that which is written, Isaiah, 
chap. lxv. and besides, that other passage in the Revela- 
tion, where it is said, %f That those which had believed in 
Christ, should live and reign with him a thousand years in 
Jerusalem ; and that after this there should be a general 
and final resurrection and judgment :" — XiXta errj voir)- 
treiv kv lepovffaXrjjj. rovg rw rjfJETEpa) Xpiara) i: ihtev Gavraq, 
&C ; Kai fuera ravra, ti]p KaOoXiKrjp, kcu gvpeXoptl (pavaL t 
olioviap 6jj.o6vfj.odop ajja warrior avaaraaiv yevrjcrecjOai, Kai 
Kpuriv.f 

In these words you see plainly that he holds with the 
Chiliasts, that the Saints shall reign a thousand years in 
Jerusalem, before the resurrection be perfectly accom- 
plished ; which is an opinion that is at this day con- 
demned as erroneous, by the whole Western Church, 
both on the one side and on the other. He seems, in 
another place, to have held that the essence of God 
was finite, and was not present in all places ; where 
he endeavours to prove against a Jew that it was 
not the Father who rained fire and brimstone upon 
Sodom, because that he could not then have been at that 
time in heaven : — 'E7T£i lap fjrj ovrio ponaiofJEP rag ypaipag 
(TV/jf3rj(TeTaL rov irarepa Kai Kvpiop tiop oXiop fjy] ysyevr] ad at 

TOTE EP TOIQ OvpCLVOLC, OTE Sid MwffftoC \e\eKTCII, Kai KvpiOC 
E(3pE£,£V E7TL IioEojJa, &C.^I 

That which he has delivered concerning the angels 
is altogether as senseless, though not so dangerous ; 
namely, " That God having in the beginning committed 
to them the care and providence over men, and all sub- 
lunary things, they had broken this order, by suffering 
themselves to be overcome by the love of women, 
by associating with whom had been also born children, 
which are those we now call demons or devils :" — Trjv 
IJlev tu)V ardpwTTOJi', Kai tiop biro top ovpapop Trpopoiap ayyE- 
Xoig, ovq E7n rovroig Ira^E, 7rapE()idKEv' Ol Se ayyEXoi wapa- 
jjapTEQ rrjrh rr\p ra^ip, yvvaiKiop fji^icrip rjTTrjdrjaap, Kai 
iraidag IrEKPiocrap, oIeictip ol XEyo^iEi'Oi &aijj0PEg.§ 

* Justin. contr.Tryph. pag. 307. t Idem. 

{ Id. contr. Tryph/p- 283 et 357. 

§ Id in Apol. pro Christ, ad Senat. p. 44. 



230 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

I know not either whether Justin will be able easily 
to convert any one to that other opinion of his, where 
he says that " All the souls of the saints, and of the 
prophets, had fallen under the power of evil spirits, 
which were such as the spirits of Python ; and that this 
was the reason why our Saviour Christ, being ready to 
give up the ghost, recommended his spirit to God :" — 
4>aiverai Se mi on iratrai a\ -^ivyat tuv ovTwg Sikcikjjv, mi 
HpotyrjTwv, viro k^ovfftav etwttov twv tolovtwv cWa/i£ajj>, &C. 
.... Kcu yap awodiSovg to Trvevjia kiri to) (rravpu), el-ire, Uarep, 
elg ytipaq gov TrapaTidefiaL to Trvevjia /xou.* 

I pray you tell me, out of what part of God's word he 
learned this doctrine, which he delivers in his second 
Apology : where he says, " That all those who lived ac- 
cording to the rule of reason were Christians, notwith- 
standing that they might have been accounted as Atheists ; 
such as among the Greeks were Socrates, Heraclitus, 
and the the like \ and among the Barbarians, Abraham 
and Azarias :" — Kcu ol /jleto. \oyov iDiwaavTeg yptaTtavoi 
eltriv Kav aSeoi kvofjuardnaav' olov kv EWrjcri fiev SiOKpciTtig, 
kcu 'HpcucXaroc;' kcli ol bfioioi avTOig kv (iapfiapoig Se 
A(3pa cuj, &c.f 

He repeats the same doctrine within a few lines after- 
wards, and says that " All those who lived, or do now 
live, according to the rule of reason, are Christians, and 
are in an assured, quiet condition :" — Ol ce jjletci \oyov 
ftaocravTsg mi fiiovvTeg, xpionaroi, mi «c/>o/3oi, mi dropa^oi 
vTzapypvoi.X 

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, who lived very near Justin's 
time, was also of the same opinion with him, as to the 
state of the soul after it was once departed from the 
body, till the hour of judgment. For, towards the 
conclusion of that excellent book of his, which he wrote 
against heresies ; after he has told us that our Saviour 
Christ had descended into hell, and had been in the 
place where the dead were, which place he opposes to 
the light of this world, be further adds, that M It is 
evident that the souls of the disciples of our Saviour, for 
the love of whom he did all these things, shall go also into 

* Justin, contr. Tryph. p. \vx\. 

t Id. Apol. '2, j). 33. ( Idem. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 231 

a certain invisible place, which is provided for them by 
God, there to expect the resurrection ; and shall after- 
wards resume their bodies, and be raised up again in all 
perfection ; that is to say, corporeally, in the same man- 
ner as our Saviour was raised up again, and so shall 
they come into the presence of God/'* This opinion he 
opposes against that of the Valentinians and Gnos- 
tics, which he had before produced in the beginning of 
that Chapter of his, who held that the souls of men, 
immediately after they had departed out of the body, 
were carred up above the heavens, and the Creator of the 
world -, and went to that mother or that Father which 
these heretics had fancied to themselves. This opinion 
of theirs is in like manner rejected by Justin Martyr, 
in the passage a little before quoted out of his book 
against Tryphon.f Whence it plainly appears (that we 
may not trouble ourselves to produce any other proofs) 
that Justin and Irenaeus w T ere both of the same belief as 
to the state of the soul after death. 

But to return to Irenaeus. In his second book against 
Heretics, he maintains very strongly, that " Our Saviour 
Christ was above forty years of age, when he suffered 
death for us :"} bringing in, in defence of this opinion of 
his, which so manifestly contradicts the evangelical his- 
tories, certain probabilities only 5 as " That our Saviour 
passed through all ages, as having come to the world to 
sanctify and save people of all ages," urging also those 
words of the Jews to our Saviour, " Thou art not yet fifty 
years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ?"§ In conclu- 
sion he says that " St. John had delivered it by tradi- 
tion, to the priests of Asia, that Christ was somewhat 
aged when he began to preach, being then about the age of 
forty or fifty years." This fancy of his appeared so ridicu- 
lous to cardinal Baronius, that (notwithstanding the 
faith of all the copies of this Father, and the context, 
which appears evidently to be his, together with the 

* Manifestum est, quia et discipulorum ejus, propter quos et haec 
operatus est Dominus, animae abibunt in invisibilem locum, definitum 
eis a Deo, et ibi usque ad resurrectionem commorabuntur, sustinen- 
tes resurrectionem, &c. — Iren.l. 5, contr, Hceres. c. 26. 

t Justin, contra Tryph. p. 307. 

% Iren. cont. Haer. 1. 2. c. 39. § Joh. viii. 57. 



232 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

vein and marks of his fancy and style), he has had the 
confidence to say, that this whole passage had been 
foisted into the text of Irenaeus, either by some igno- 
rant or some malicious person, and that it could not 
be Irenaeus's own.* But it seems he had no great rea- 
son for his suspicion ; as the Jesuit Petavius has 
clearly made it appear in his notes upon Epiphanius.f 

However, you may hence perceive that Baronius thin k 
that very possible which we have endeavoured to prove in 
the former part of this treatise -, namely, that there may 
possibly have been very many and great alterations and 
corruptions in the books of the writers of the first ages, 
by many passages and clauses having been either in- 
serted in them, or else maliciously erased out of them. 

The same Irenaeus holds, and endeavours to prove in 
the same book, " That the souls of men, after death, 
retain the character (that is to say the figure) of the 
bodies to which they were formerly united, and that 
they represent the shape of the said bodies, so as to 
make men take them for the same." J 

I shall here pass by that which Irenaeus says in the 
49th chapter of the same book ; that our Saviour Christ 
did not at all know when the day of judgment should 
be -, neither according to the one nor according to the 
other of his natures : although these words of his look 
as if they would very hardly be reconciled to any good 
sense. Neither shall I yet take notice of what both he 
and Justin Martyr have in divers places so rashly aver- 
red, as regards the strength of human nature, in the 
business of salvation ;§ because I conceive with Cassan- 
der,|| that all those passages may. and indeed ought to 
be understood, with respect to the scope and drift of 
these authors ; whose business was to confute those 
heretics of their time, who maintained that there was a 



* Baron. Annal. t. 1. an. 84. num. 137. 
+ Petav. in Epiphan. p. 143. 

\ Animas, 8cc. cliaractcrcm corporis, in quo otiam adaptantur 

coatodire eundem ; el animat bominia habere figuram ut ctiam cog- 
noecantnr— - Iren, I. '2. contra Har, c, 62, 63. 

s$ Inn. eontr. beec 1. 2, c, 49. 

j| Caasand. in defent, Llbelli dc Oflie. Pii Viri. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. c 233 

fatal necessity in the actions of men, by this means de- 
priving them of all manner of election or judgment. 

The great learning of Clemens Alexandrinus has not 
prevented him from falling into many similar errors : as 
for instance, where in divers places he says plainly, "That 
the heathen, who lived before the coming of our Savi- 
our Christ, were justified by philosophy ; which was then 
necessary for them ; whereas it is now only useful unto 
them ; and that this philosophy was the schoolmaster of 
the Gentiles, which brought them to Christ, or served 
to guide them till the time of his coming ; in like manner 
as the law did the Jews ; and that the Greeks were 
justified by it alone ; and that it was given unto them as 
their covenant, being a step to, and as it were a founda- 
tion laid for, Christian philosophy • — H»/ /jlev ovv wpo ttjq 
tov Kvpiov 7rupov(TiaQ eIq StKaiofTvvrjv ILXkrjviv civayKaia 

<pi\ocro(j)ia vvv ()£ Xpr](TL}ir) irpog deocjefieiav ytverai 

'JLTraiSayioyEi yap Kat civrrj to 'EWtjvikov, wq 6 vojjloq tovq 
'ILfipaiovQ eIq yjpicrTov .* . . . . Ka0 ? eavrrfy eSlkuiov ttote /cat rj 
<j)i\o(TO(j)ia tovq EWrfvag.f . . . . Trjv Se (j)i\o(TO(j)iav Kai jJiaWov, 
'EXXr/fTiv olov SiaOrjKrjv oiiceiav, avroig SeSoadcu, V7roj3a0piav 
ovaav ty]Q Kara yjiiGTOv <bikoGOtyia.q.\ 

Clemens was of opinion also, " That our Saviour went 
down into hell, to preach the Gospel to the departed 
souls ;" and that He saved many of them ; that is, all 
that believed : " And that the Apostles also, after their 
death, descended likewise into the same place, and for 
the same purpose 3" conceiving that God otherwise 
would have been unjust, and an acceptor of persons ; 
if He had condemned all those who died before the 
coming of his Son. " For (says he) if He preached to 
the living, to the end they might not be condemned 
unjustly ; why should he not, for the same reason, 
preach also to those who were departed this life before 
his coming ? — Ka0a7T£0 lovSatovg aoj^EcrOai eJ3ov\eto 6 
OeOQ, TOVQ 7TpO(j)r]TaQ $L()OVQ, ovtwq Kai JLWrjvtov tovq 
Soki/jkjJtcltovq, o)keiovq dvTUJV ty\ SiaXsKTo) irpo(pr)TaQ 
dvavTrjcrag.^ . . . . 'O Kvpiog IvtiyyeXicraTO Kai tolq ev ct&w, 
&C.|| .... Kat 01 A7to(Tto\ol KaOawEp eVravOa, ovtljq kolkel 
fin inferis) tovq tuv (Qvuv ettiti^eiovq elq E7rt(7Tpo(prjv 

* Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. 1. t I° id - P* n 7- 

J'ld. lib. 6, Strom, p. 279. § Id. p. 268. 

|| "id. Strom, lib. 6. p. 269. 



234 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED. 

evt]yye\i(TavTO** .... 'Irjaovg Se tolvvv tovq iv aapia Sia 
tovto evrj-yyeXicraTO, iva \xt\ KaraSiKacrQwaiv ciclkljc' itwq ovv 
tovq Trpoe^eXrjXvdorag ttjq irapovaiag avrov fir] lia rrjv avTrjv 
e^vrjyyeXLaaro clIticlv. f 

From these and the like considerations, Clemens 
concludes, that it was necessary that the souls of all 
the departed, Gentiles as well as Jews, should have 
been made partakers of the preaching of our Saviour, 
" and should have had the benefit of the same Dispen- 
sation, which he used towards others upon earth, in 
order either to their salvation, through repentance, 
or their just condemnation for their impenitency :" — 
Tt ovv ov\i Kai iv aSov r) avri] yeyovev oiKovofJiici, Iva 
kclksl Traccu at ^vyat aKKravai avrov trjpvyjJLaroQj rj rr\v [XETa- 
voiav ivSetliovTaii rj ttjv koXcktiv BiKcuav eivai, Si Cjv ovk 
irriGTEvvav, 6fxoXoyr)<ru)cnv .J 

He plainly maintains also, in several places of his 
works, that all the punishments, which God inflicts upon 
men, tend to their salvation, and are sent them for their 
instruction and amendment ; comprehending also within 
this number even those very pains which the damned 
endure in hell. Hence it is, that he somewhere also 
affirms that wicked men are to be purged by fire 5 and 
to this does he refer the conflagration, spoken of by the 
Stoics ; alleging also to this purpose divers passages 
out of Plato, and out of a certain philosopher of Ephe- 
sus, which I conceive to be Heraclitus :§ from all of 
which it clearly appears that he had the same belief as 
to the pains in hell that his scholar Origen had, who 
maintains, in an infinite number of places in his works, 
that the pains of hell are purgative only, and conse- 
quently are not eternal, but are to have an end, when 
the souls of the damned are once thoroughly cleansed 
and purified by this fire. He believes also, with Justin 
Martyr, that the angels fell in love with the first women, 
and that this love of theirs transported them so far, as 
to make them indiscreetly to discover unto them many 
secrets which they ought to have concealed : — 01 
dyytXoL tktu'Qi ol tjiv dvu> KXrjpov Eiyr)yoTEc, KaToXi<rdr)(rav- 
tec eIc vag, E&nrovTa airopprjTCi tuic yviiaUv, t^c. 

* Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. (3, p, 2G7. 

t [bid. p. 271. t Ibid. p. 270. 

§ Id. Strom. 1. 5, p. 227. [| Id. Strom, lib. 5, p. 227. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 235 

Clemens, quite contrary to Irenaeus, who maintains 
that our Saviour Christ lived upon the earth to the age 
of fifty years, will have him to have preached in the flesh 
but one year only, and to have died in the thirty-first 
year of his age : — Ovtcj 7r\r]povTai tcl rptaKovra err} kcog 
ov tirade.* 

But since it is confessed by both parties, that there are 
very many absurd tenets in this author, I shall not inter- 
fere any further with him. 

As for Tertullian, I confess the fact of his turning 
Montanist has taken away very much of the repute which 
he before had in the Church, both for the fervency of 
his piety and for his incomparable learning. But be- 
sides that a great part of his works were written while 
he was yet a Catholic, we are also to notice that his 
Montanism put no separation between him and other 
Christians, except in point of discipline, which he, ac- 
cording to the austerity of his nature, chose to be 
most harsh and rigorous. As for his doctrine, it is 
very evident that he constantly kept to the very same 
rule, and the same faith that the Catholics did :f whence 
proceeded that tart speech of his, " That people rejected 
Montanus, Maximilla, and Priscilla, not because they 
had anywhat departed from the rule of faith, but rather 
because they would have us to fast oftener than to 
marry." J And this is evident enough, out of all those 
books which were written by him, during the time of his 
being a Montanist ; wherein he never disputes or con- 
tends about anything, except about discipline. This 
is ingenuously confessed also, by the learned Nicholaus 
Rigaltius, in his preface to those nine books which he has 
lately published. § 

Now notwithstanding the great repute which this 
Father had in the Church, and his not departing from 
it in anything, in point of faith ; yet how many wild opi- 

* Clem. Alex. Strom, p. 127. 

f Vid. lib. de Mon. cap. 2. &c. et J. contr. Psych, cap. 1. 

\ Si paracleto controversial!! faciunt propter hoc, prophetiae novae 
recusantur, non quod alium Deum predicant Montanus, et Priscilla, 
et Maximilla, &c, sed quod plane doceant saepius jejunare, quam 
nubere. — Id. contr. Psych, c. 10. 

§ Nicol. Rigaltius Prolog, in animad. ad Tertul. 9. Tract, an. Lutet. 
1628. 



236 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

nions and fancies do we meet with in his books ? I 
shall here speak only of some of the principal of them, 
passing by his dangerous expressions on the person 
of the Son of God, as having touched upon this particu- 
lar before. But how strange is his manner of discourse 
on the nature of God,* whom he seems to render sub- 
ject to the like passions that we are ; as to anger, hatred, 
and grief ? He attributes also to him a corporeal sub- 
stance, and " does not believe (as he says) that any 
man will deny but that God is a body :"| so that we 
need wonder the less that he so confidently affirms, 
"That there is no substance which is not corporeal :% 
or that, with Justin Martyr and Clemens Alexan- 
drinus, he makes the angelical nature obnoxious to 
the carnal love of women :§ which occasioned those 
words in that book of his, " De Virginibus Velandis," — 
where he says, " That it is necessary that so dangerous 
a face should be veiled, which had scandalized even 
heaven itself/' || 

We need not, after this, wonder at his doctrine on the 
nature of man's soul, which he will have to be corporeal, 
and endued with form and figure, and to befpropagated, 
and derived from the substance of the Father, to the 
body of the Son, and sowed and engendered with the 
body, increasing and extending itself together with it ;^[ 
and many other the like dreams ; in the maintaining of 
which he uses so much subtlety, strength of reason, and 
eloquence, that you will, through the whole range of anti- 
quity, scarce meet with a more excellent and more elegant 
piece than that book of his De Anima. He also, with 
Irenaeus, shuts up the souls of men, after they are de- 
parted this life, in a certain subterraneous place, where 

* Tertul. 1. 1, adv. Marc. c. 25, et L 2, 6, 16. " 

t Quis negabit Deura corpus esse, etsi spiritus est ? — Id. adv. Grig, 
cap. 7, et I. 2, contra Marc. c. 16. 

\ Cum ipsa substantia corpus sit cuj usque — Id. lib. adv. Hermng. 
c. 35. 

§ Angelos esse illos desertores Dei, amatores foeminarum, &c — Id. 
I. de Idol. cap. 9. 

|| Debet et adumbrari facies tain periculosa, quae usque ad coelum 
letndala jacolata est. — Id.de Virg< Veland* cap. i. 

\ Detinimus animum did statu natunun immortalem, corporalem, 
emgiatam, ike, et una redundantein, &c. — Ibid. lib. dc. Anim. pas- 
sim : notninatim c. 22. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 23"" 

they are to remain till the day of judgment 3 the hea- 
vens not being to be opened to any of the faithful till 
the end of the world : only he allows the martyrs their 
entrance into Paradise, which he fancies to be some 
place beneath the heavens 5 and here he will have them 
continue till the last day. " It is thy blood (says he) 
which is the only key of Paradise."* And this place, 
whither the souls of the departed go, is, according to 
him, to continue shut up till the end of the world. He is 
besides of a contrary opinion to that of Justin Martyr, 
spoken of before ; and maintains that all apparitions of 
the deceased are mere illusions and deceits of the devil 5 
and that this inclosure of the souls of men shall conti- 
nue till such time as the city of the New Jerusalem, 
which is to be all of precious stone, shall descend mira- 
culously from heaven upon the earth, and shall there 
continue a thousand years, the saints long living therein 
ill very great glory : and that during this space the 
resurrection of the faithful is to be accomplished by de- 
grees 3 some of them rising up sooner, and some later, 
according to the difference of their merits. t Hence we 
are to interpret what he says in another place, " That 
small sins shall be punished in men by the lateness of 
their resurrection :"J and "That when the thousand 
years are expired, and the destruction of the world, and 
the conflagration of the day of judgment is passed, we 
shall all be changed in a moment into the nature of 
angels." § 

I pass by his invectives against second marriages, and 



* Quo (in inferis) spes omnis sequestrator, tota Paradisi clavis 
sanguis tuus est. Nulli patet coelum, terra adhuc salva, ne dixerim 
causa — Id. lib. de an. c. 55, 56, 57, 58. 

f Nam et ccmfitemur in terra nobis regnum repromissum post re- 
surrectionem in mille annos in civitate divini operis, Hierusalem coelo 
delata, &c, inter quam aetatem (1000 annorum) cone luditur sanc- 
torum resurreotio, pro meritis maturius, vel tardius resurgentium 

Id. lib. adv. Marc. c. 24. 

{ Modicum quoque delictum mora resurrectionis illic luendum 

Id. 1. de An. c. 58. 

§ Post cujus mille annos, &c, tunc et mundi destructione, et judi- 
dicii conflagratione commissa, demutari in atomo in angelicam sub- 
stantiam ; scilicet per illud incorruptionis superindumentum transfere- 
mur incceleste regnum, &c. — Id. lib. 3, adv. Marc, c. 29. 



238 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

also his opinion against all marriage in general ; these 
fancies being a part of the discipline of Montanus 
Paraclete. But as to his opinions on the baptism of 
heretics, he has many fellows among the Fathers, who 
held the same ; namely, that their baptism signified 
nothing : and therefore they never received any heretic 
into the communion of the Catholic Church, without 
first rebaptizing him, — "cleansing him (says he) both 
in the one and in the other man ; that is to say, both in 
body and soul, by the baptism of the truth, accounting 
an heretic to be in the same, or rather in a worse, con- 
dition than any pagan."* As for the rest, he is so far 
from pressing men to the baptizing of their children 
while they are young, which yet is the custom of these 
times 5 that he allows, and indeed persuades to the 
contrary ; not only in children, but even in persons of 
riper years ; counselling them to defer it, every man 
according to his condition, disposition, and age.f And 
as his opinion, in this particular, is not much different 
from that of the Anabaptists of our time ; so does he 
not much dissent from them in some other matters. 
For he will not allow, no more than they do, that a 
Christian should take upon him or execute any office of 
judicature, or "that he should condemn, or bind, or 
imprison, or examine any man;" or that he should 
make war upon any, or serve in war under any other ; 
saying expressly, " that our Saviour Christ, by disarm- 
ing St. Peter, hath from henceforth taken off every 
soldier's belt:" % which is as much as to say, that the 
discipline of Christ allows not of the profession of 
soldiery. From which I cannot but wonder at the 
confidence (or rather the inadvertency) of some who 

* De pudic. 1. 19. apud nos ut ethnico par, imo et super eth- 
nicum haereticus etiam per baptisma veritatis utroque homine purga- 
tus adinittitur — Tertvl. I. de Bapt, adv. Quint, c. 15. : et de Pudic. 
c. 19. 

f Itaque pro cujusque personam conditione, ac dispositione, etiam 
aetate cunctatio baptisrui utilior est, &c Id. I. de Baptism, cap. 18. 

% Jam vero quae sunt potestatis, neque judicet de capite alicujus, 
vel pudore, (feras enim de pecunia,) neque damnet, neque praedam- 
net, neminem vinciat, neminem recludat, aut torqucat, &c. omnem 

postea militem Dominus in Petro exarmando diseingit Id. lib. de 

Idol. c. 17 * 19, <\r. et lib. 1. de Cor. Mil. c.81. 






IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 239 

would persuade us, from a certain passage of this 
author,* which themselves have very much mistaken, 
that this innocent and peaceable Father maintained, 
that heretics are to be punished, and to be suppressed 
by inflicting on them temporal punishments : which 
rigorous proceeding was as far from his thoughts as 
heaven is from earth. 

I shall add here, before I proceed further, that 
Tertullian held that our Saviour Christ suffered death 
in the thirteenth year of his age,"f which is manifestly 
contrary to the Gospel : he thought also that the hea- 
venly grace and prophecy ended in St. John Baptist,^ 
the fulness of the Spirit being from henceforth trans- 
ferred unto our Saviour Christ. 

St. Cyprian, who was Tertullian's very great admirer, 
calling him absolutely, the master, and who never let 
any day pass over his head without reading something 
of him,§ has confidently maintained some of the afore- 
said opinions ; among others, that of the nullity of 
baptism by heretics, which he defends every where 
very strongly, having also the most eminent men of 
his time consenting with him in this point ; as Fir- 
milianus metropolitan of Cappadocia,|| Dionysius bi- 
shop of Alexandria,^ together with the councils of 
Africa, Cappadocia, Pamphilia, and Bithynia, notwith- 
standing all the anger and the excommunication also of 
Stephen bishop of Rome, who for his own part held a par- 
ticular opinion of his own, allowing the baptism of all 
kinds of heretics, without rebaptising any of them ; as 
it appears by the beginning of the 74th epistle of St. 



* Famel. in Scap. Tertul. c. 2. num. 15. et in 1. ad Scap. c. 2, 
num. 7. 

f Chiistus annos habens quasi triginta cum pateretur, &c Ter- 
tul. lib. adv. Jud. cap. 8. 

J Id. de Bapt. adver. Quint, cap. 10. 

§ Vidi ego quondam Paulum, &c. qui se B. Cypriani, &c. Nota- 
rium, &c. Romae vidisse dicerer, referrique sibi solitum, nunquam 
Cyprianum absque Tertulliafri lectione unum diem praeterisse, ac 
sibi crebro dicere, Da magistrum, Tertullianum|videlicet/signincans. — 
Hiero. I. de Script. Eccles. in Tertul. 

|| Cypr. Ep. 47. ad Steph. et alibi passim. 
% Firmil. Ep. 75. inter. Ep. Cypr. 
** Hieron. lib. de Script. Eccles. 



240 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

Cyprian ;* whereas the Church, about sixty-five years 
after, at the council of Nice declared null the baptism 
of the Samosatenians, by permitting, as it seems, all 
other heretics whatsoever to be received into the Church 
without being re-baptized : — Uepi tuv RavXtar warrior, 
tcai irpocrtyvyovrtov rrj KaSo\iKr] eKK\r](na' bpog eKridrjrai dra- 
fict7rTi£e(T0ai avrovg il;a7rarroQ.f 

The Fathers of the second general council went yet 
further, re-baptising all those not otherwise than they 
would have done Pagans, who came in from the com- 
munion either of the Eunomians, Montanists, Phrygians, 
or Sabellians ; or indeed any other heretics whatsoever, 
except the Arians, Macedonians, Sabbatians, Nova- 
tians, Quartodecimani, and Apollinarians ; all which 
they received without re baptization, as you may see in 
the Greek copies of the said council, and the seventh 
canon, which canon also appears in the Greek code of 
the Church Universal, Num. 170. 

Thus you see that Stephen and Cyprian maintained 
each of them their own particular opinion in this point -, 
the one of them admitting, and the other utterly re- 
jecting the baptism of all kinds of heretics : whereas 
the two aforenamed general councils neither admitted 
nor rejected, save only the baptism of certain heretics 
only. St. Cyprian however seems to have dealt herein 
much more fairly than his adversary ; seeing that he 
patiently endured, and was not offended with any of 
those who were of the contrary opinion; J as it appears 
clearly by the Synod of Carthage, and as it is also 
proved by St. Hierome :§ whereas Stephen, according 
to his own hot choleric temper, declared publicly against 
Firmilianus's opinion, || and excommunicated all those 
that differed from himself.^" 

The same blessed martyr of our Saviour Jesus Christ 

* Con. Nic. Can. 19- 

f Si quis ergo a quacunque ha:resi venerit ad nos, nihil innovetur, 
nisi quod traditum est, ut raanus illi imponatur ad poenitentiam, 
&c. — Cypr. ep. 74. uiit. ubi referuntur lure Stcphani verba. 

J Nerninem judicantes, aut a jure communionia aliquem, si diver- 
sum Benserit, amoventes. — <"///»•. Free. Cone. Cartk. 

$ Ilier. contra Lucifer, t. 2, p. 197. &C. 

I' Kirmil. ep. ad Cypr. (pise est 75, inter ep. Cypr. p. 204. 

^ Cypr. ep. 74, p. 194, et ep. 75, quae est Firmil. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 241 

was also carried away with that error of his time, on 
the necessity of administering the sacrament of the 
holy eucharist to all persons when they were baptized, 
and even to infants also 5 as appears by his 59th epistle,* 
where, by the suffrages of sixty-five other bishops, he 
admits infants to baptism and the Lord's supper, as 
soon as they were born ; contrary to the opinion of one 
Fidus, who would not admit of them till the eighth day 
after they were born : — and also by that story of his 
which he tells us of a certain young girl, who being not 
as yet of years to speak, by a remarkable miracle put 
back the liquor which had been consecrated for the blood 
of our Saviour, and was presented unto her by a deacon 
to drink in the church $ as judging herself unworthy to 
receive it, by reason that not long before she had 
been carried to the celebration of some certain pagan 
sacrifices. 

Now the original of this error of theirs was the belief 
they had, that the eucharist was as necessary to salva- 
tion as baptism ; as may easily be collected out of the 
words of the said author, (Lib. 3. Test, ad Quirin.) 
Having first laid it down as the groundwork, " That 
no man can come into the kingdom of God, unless he 
be baptised and regenerated :"f he produces for a proof 
hereof, first that passage out of St. John, where it is 
said, (S That except a man be born of water and of the 
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," &c. :J 
then again, u Except you eat the flesh of the Son of 
man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." J 
Urging the first of these texts to prove the necessity of 
baptism, and the other for that of the eucharist ; 
accounting each of them necessary to regeneration. 
Hence it is that we find him speaking so often of being 
" born again, by virtue of the one and of the other 
sacrament," by which words he does not mean baptism 

* Ut intra octavum diem eum qui natus est baptizandum, et sacri- 
ficandum non put ares. — Cypr. ep. 59, p. 137. 

t Ad regnum Dei nisi baptizatus, et renatus quis fuerit, perve- 
nire non posse ; in Evang. secundum Joan. — Id. 1. 3. Test, ad Quir. 

X Nisi quis natus fuerit, &o. Item illic : Nisi ederitis carnem filii 
hominis, et biberitis sanguinem ejus, non nabebitis vitam in vobis. 

M 



242 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

and confirmation (as some would persuade us), but 
rather baptism and the Lord's supper, as is evident from 
the following words : st It is to very little purpose to be 
baptised, and to partake of the holy eucharist, unless 
a man proceed in the good works/' &c* 

1 shall here pass by some words, which he has some- 
times let fall on the baptism of heretics, f from which 
he seems to make the efficacy of the sacrament depend 
upon the integrity and sanctity of the person who 
administers it. 

We shall now proceed, in the next place, to speak of 
Origen j but since there have been some since his time, 
who have very much decried both him and his doctrine, 
and others again on the other side who have as strongly 
defended him, we shall forbear to say anything of him 
that may engage us in a tedious discussion : we shall 
only observe, from this example of his, that neither the 
antiquity, nor the learning or holy life of any man 
necessarily prevents him fallling into very strange and 
gross errors. For Origen was one of the most ancient 
among the Fathers, having lived about the middle of 
the third century 5 and having been so eminent for those 
two other excellencies of virtue and learning, that his 
fiercest adversaries cannot deny that he possessed them 
both in a very high degree. Neither ought the story of 
his fall, related by Epiphanius,:f to disparage the repu- 
tation of his virtue : for though perhaps it might 
have been true, yet has it frequently happened to 
others of the faithful to fall into great temptations, 
as appears evidently enough from the example of St. Peter 
himself. 

But that I may not dissemble, I profess myself much 
inclined to be of cardinal Baronius's opinion j§ who 
thinks this story to be an arrant fable, maliciously de- 

* Parum esse baptizari et eucharistiam accipere, nisi quis factis et 
opere proficiat, al pernciat. — Id. ibid. c. 26. 

f Quando nee oblatio sanetificare il!ic possit, ubi spiritus sanctus 
non sit, nee cuiquam Doniinus per ejus orationes et preces prosit, 
qui Dominum ipse violavit. — Id. <y>. 63. 

\ Epiphan. 64. Hnr. que est Orig. 

§ liaron. Anual. ad An. 253, num. 120, 121, 122. 






IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 243 

vised by those who envied the fame of this excellent 
scholar, and that it was foisted into Epiphanius by 
some such hand 3 or else (as I rather believe), was ac- 
credited by himself, and foisted into that book of his 
without any further examination, as many other things 
have been ; in the relating of which this Father has 
shewn himself a little over-credulous, as is truly ob- 
served by his last interpreter.* 

Yet (Mgen, notwithstanding all those excellent gifts 
of his, has not hesitated to broach very many opinions, 
which by reason of their absurdity have been utterly 
rejected (and very deservedly so) by the Church in all 
succeeding ages : which is an evident argument, that 
however ancient, learned, and holy an author may have 
been, we ought not at once to believe him, and to urge 
him as infallible : since there is no reason in the world 
why the same thing which has befallen Origen in so 
many points, may not in some or other have also hap- 
pened to any other author. But of this I am very well 
assured that those very men who have written against 
Origen, have not been so thoroughly happy in their un- 
dertaking ; but by opposing to the utmost some certain 
error of his, have sometimes fallen into as great a one of 
their own. One of them for example, Methodius by 
name, as he is cited by Epiphanius, maintains, that 
after the resurrection and final judgment, we shall 
dwell for ever upon earth, leading there a holy, 
blessed, and everlasting life, exercising ourselves in 
all good things, as the angels do in heaven. He 
also, *as well as the rest, makes the angels obnoxious 
to the love of women ; and he will have God's providence 
to extend itself only to universal causes, affirming that 
he has committed the care of particular things to the 
angels : — Tapa*)(dr](T£crQai \xev yap T7]v ktmtiv, ov \xr\v ano- 
XeLvdai 7Tf>o(T()OKr]Teov, ottcoq avaKaLvoirotrjdevTec kv avaKai- 
voiroi-qdevTi Koa/jLo) ayevaroi \vttyiq KaroLKTj(TU)jjLev. . . . Q><j7rep 
Kat 6l jjcera ravra capKiov epa<jQavr£Q, ^at rate Ttav dvOjOw- 
iru)v elg (pCkoKoiriav Gixt\r)cravTEQ dvyarpacrtv. . . . I*>a ty]V 
jjlev iravTEkiKriv /cat yrjvertKrjv £)( w>/ ^ @£oq tcov oXiov 7rpovoiav, 
tk\v Se ?ta jjtepovQ ol £7tl tovtio TctydevTEQ dyyeXoi.f 

* Petav. Not. ad Haer. 55, p. 217. 

f Method, apud Epiphan. in Panar. Haer.~54, quae -est. Orig. 

m2 



244 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

These opinions of Methodius, if they be thoroughly- 
examined, will be found to be not much less dangerous, 
and contrary to the Scriptures, than some of those which 
he reproves in Origen. 

For the same reason just assigned, I shall also pass 
by Eusebius, Didymus, Apollinaris, and others, who 
though they are very ancient authors, yet there is 
usually little account made of them, by reason of the 
indifferent opinion the greatest part of the Church had 
of them. As for the two first of these, (although per- 
haps their faith may not have been much freer from 
stains than the rest) they have yet been more favourably 
dealt with by posterity than their brethren ; whether it 
w r ere because that the time they lived in being so far 
distant from the ages of our Aristarchi, and censors of 
other men, they have so much the less excited their 
envy and passion j or else because that they were wil- 
ling to spare them, by reason of the high opinion that 
the common herd in the Church had of them. 

Lactantius Firmianus, whose repute was scarcely ques- 
tioned among the ancients, had, notwithstanding, his er- 
rors. For it is long since that St. Hierome observed a 
very strange one in him, in an epistle that he wrote to 
Demetrianus ; where he denies " that the Holy Ghost 
is a distinct person in the Godhead, subsisting together 
with the Father and the Son."* His other errors are 
not so dangerous, and are indeed common to him, with 
some other of the Fathers : as where he says, that the 
angels defiled themselves with women 5 and that from 
this their communion with them were born demons, or 
devils ;f as likewise where he teaches, " that the souls 
of men, after this life, are all shut up together in one 
common prison, where they are to continue till the day 
of judgment :" { and, "that our Saviour Christ shall 

* Lactantius in libris suis, ut maxime in epistolis ad Demetrianum 
Spiritus Sancti omnind negat substantiam, et errore Judaico dicit, eum 
vel ad Patrem referri, vel ad filium, et sanctificationem utriusque 
persona? sub ejus nomine demonstrari. — Hieron, ep. 65, ad Pam. et 
Octar. 

I Lact Firm. lib. 2. divin. Instit. cap. 15. 

t Omnea (animae) in una communique custodia detinentur, 
donee tempos adveniat, quo maximal judex meritorum faciat examen. 

— Id. lib. 7, cap. 21, citr. 






IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 245 

come again upon the earth, before the last and final 
resurrection -, and that those who shall then be found 
alive, shall not die at all, but shall be preserved alive, 
and shall beget an infinite number of children, during 
the space of a thousand years ; living all of them 
peaceably together, in a most happy city, which shall 
abound with all good things, under the reign of our 
Saviour Jesus Christ, and of some of the saints, who 
shall be raised from the dead."* 

But what will you say, if St. Hilary also himself, 
who flourished about the middle of the fourth century, 
has his tares also ; which are the more observable in 
him, in proportion as his estimation was greater among 
the ancients. The principal and most dangerous of all 
is that strange opinion which he held on the nature of 
Christ's body, which he maintained had no sense or 
feeling of those stripes and torments he suffered : " But 
that he really suffered indeed at that time when he was 
beaten, and when he was put upon the cross, and fas- 
tened unto it, and died upon it : but that this passion 
falling wholly upon his body, notwithstanding that it 
was a real passion ; yet did it not shew upon him the 
nature of a passion ; and that while the furious strokes 
were dealt upon him, the strength and vigour of his 
body received the force of the strokes upon it, yet with- 
out any sense of pain. I shall confess (says he) that the 
body of our Saviour had a nature susceptible of our 
griefs, if the nature of our body be such, as that it is 
able to tread upon the water, and to walk upon the 
floods without sinking, or without the waters yielding 
to our footsteps, when we stand thereon : if it can pene- 
trate solid bodies, or can pass with ease through doors 
that are shut."f And within two or three lines after 

* Turn qui erunt in corporibus vivi, non morientur, sed per eos- 
dem mille annos infinitam multitudinem generabunt, &c. qui autem 
ab inferis suscitabuntur, ii praeibunt viventibus velut Judices. — Id. 
lib. 7, c. 24. 

f Passus quidem Dominus Jesus Christus dum caeditur, dura sus- 
penditur, dum crucifigitur, dum moritur : sed in corpus irruens 
passio, nee non fuit passio, nee taraen naturam passionis exercuit, 
dum et paenali ministerio ilia desaevit, et virtus corporis sine sensu 
pcenae vim pcenae in se desaevientis excepit ; habuit sane illud Domini 
corpus doloris nostri naturam, si corpus nostrum id naturae habet, 



246 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

he says, st Such is the man sent from God, having a 
body capable of suffering, (for he really suffered), but 
not having a nature capable of pain. When the blows 
(said he, a little before) fell upon him, or a stripe 
pierced his skin, it brought indeed with it the violence 
and impetuosity of passion, but yet it wrought no pain 
in him : in like manner as when a sword is thrust through 
and through the water, or through and through the fire, 
it goes through indeed, and pierces the water or the 
fire, but it wounds it not ; these things having not a 
nature that may be wounded or hurt, notwithstanding 
that the nature of the sword be to work the said effect/'* 
In conclusion, that you may not think this to be a sud- 
den fancy, that he fell on by chance, before he was 
aware, you must know that he repeats the same thing 
in divers other places : as in his comment on the 53rd 
Psalm : " The passion of Christ (says he) was undergone 
by him voluntarily, to make an acknowledgment that 
pains were due ; not that he that suffered was at all 
touched by them/'f And again, in another place : 
" Christ is thought to have felt pain, because he suffered -, 
but he was really free from all pain, because he is 
God."} 

Only think now, to what all this tends, and what 



ut calcet undas, et super fluctus eat, et non deprimatur ingressu, 
neque aquae iusistentis vestigiis cedant : ponatur etiam solida, nee 
clausae donius obstaculis areeatur Hilar. tU Trinit. I. 10. 

* Et homo ille de Deo est, habens ad patiendum quidem corpus, 
ut passus est ; Bed naturaiu non habens ad dolendum. Naturae 
eniin propria? ac sine corpus illud est, quod in ccelesteru gloriam 
transfonuatur in morte. . . .In quo quamvis aut ictus incident, aut 
vulnus descenderit, aut nodi concurrerint, aut suspeusio elevarit, 
afferunt quidem haecimpetum pjssionis, non tamen dolorem passionis 
inferunt : ut telum aliquod, aut aquam pcrforans, aut ignem com- 
pungens, aut aera vulnerans, omnea quidem has passiones naturae 
>u;e infert, ut perforet, ut compungat, ut vulneret, sed naturam 
suam in luee pas&io illata non rennet, duin in naturanon est vel aquam 
forari, vel pungi ignem, vel aera vulnerari, quamvis natura teli sit 
vulnerare, compungere, et forare. — Id. ibid. 

f Suseepta \oluntane est (passio) officio quidem^ipsa satisfactura 
poeoali, non tatnen poena: sensu hesura patientem, &c. — Hilar, in Ps. 
.",3. 

{ Putatur dolere, quia patitur; caret vero doloribus ipse, quia 
Deus est Id. in Pi, 138. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 247 

will become of our salvation, if the passion of our Saviour 
Christ, which is the only foundation whereon it is built, 
were but a mere imaginary passion, without any sense of 
pain at all. And, as one absurdity being granted, there 
will necessarily others always follow upon it, so has 
this strange peculiar fancy of his made him to corrupt 
and spoil the whole story of our Saviour's passion. For 
he supposes that in that dismal night, wherein Christ 
was delivered up for our sins, all his anguish, his distress, 
and drops of bloody sweat, proceeded not from the con- 
sideration of the torments, and the death which he was 
now going to suffer, (and indeed according to his ac- 
count, since he will not allow him to have felt any pain, 
he was neither bound to be, nor indeed could be, in any 
agony,) but rather from the fear he was under, lest his 
disciples, being scandalized at these sad sights, might 
possibly have sinned against the Holy Ghost, by denying 
his Godhead ; and that from hence it was, that St. Peter, 
in his denial of his Master, used these words : " Non 
novi hominem 5" (I know him not as man,) because that 
whatsoever is spoken against the Son of man may be 
forgiven.* So likewise in these words of our Saviour, 
" O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from 
me," his opinion is, that our Saviour did not here 
desire that he himself might be delivered from his pas- 
sion, but rather that after he had suffered, his disciples 
might also suffer in like manner jj- that this cup might 
not rest at him, but that it might pass on to his disciples 
also ; that is to say, that it might be drunk by them in 
the same manner as he himself was now going to taste 
of it -, to wit, without any touch of despair or distrust, 
and without any sense of pain, or fear of death. 

What could have been written more coolly, or more 
disagreeing with the truth and simplicity of the Gos- 

* Scribit exterrendos, fugandos, negaturos ; sed quia spiritus blas- 
phemise nee hie, nee in seterrmm remittitur, metuit ne se Deum ab- 
negent, quern csesum, et consputum, et crucifixum essent contempla- 
ting ; quae ratio servata est in Petro : qui cum negaturus esset, ita 
negavit, Non novi hominem : quia dictum aliquod in filium hominis 
remittitur — Hilar, in Matth. can. 31. 

f Transeat calix a me, id est, quomodo a me bibitur, ita ab iis 
bibatur, sine spei diffidentia, sine sensu doloris, sine metu mortis, 
&c. — Id. ibid. 



248 



THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 



pel ? Yet I cannot sufficiently wonder at him, that 
having thus rarefied the flesh of our Saviour Christ into 
a spirit, he should in another place condense our spirits 
into bodies. " There is nothing (says he) which is not 
corporeal in its substance and creation, &c. For the 
species of our souls themselves, whether they be united 
to the body, or are separated from them, are still a na- 
ture whose substance is corporeal."* He believes also, 
that baptism does not cleanse us from all our sins ; and 
therefore he holds that all men must at the last day 
pass through the fire.f " We are then (says he) to en- 
dure an indefatigable fire. Then is the time that we 
are to undergo those grievous torments for the expiation 
of our sins, and purging our souls. A sword shall 
pierce through the soul of the blessed Virgin Mary, to 
the end that the thoughts of many hearts may be re- 
vealed. Seeing therefore that that Virgin, who was 
capable of receiving God, shall taste of so severe a 
judgment, where is he that dares desire to be judged of 

Go&r'i 

I know not whether he might heretofore have per- 
suaded any number of people to embrace this doctrine 
of his or not ; but sure I am, that were he alive at this 
day, he would take but a useless piece of labour in hand, 
if he should go about to win the Franciscan friars over 
to this belief. 

St. Ambrose, one of the most firm pillars of the 
Church in his time, is not more free than the rest from 
the like failings. For first of all, he agrees with St. 
Hilary in this last point, and maintains that all in 
general shall be proved by fire at the last day ; and that 

* Nihil est quod non in substantia sua, et creatione corporeum 
sit, &c. Nam et animarum species sive obtinentium corpora, sive 
corporibus exulantium, corporeara tamen naturae suae substantiam 
sortiuntur Ser. in Matth. can, 5. 

t Est ergo, quantum licet existimare, perfectoe illius emundatio 
puritatis, etiam post baptisiui aquas rcposita, &c. — Id. in Ps. 118, 
til. Gimcl. 

X In quo (die Judicii) nobis est ille indefessus ignis obeundus, 
in quo subeunda sunt gravia ilia expiandffi a peccatis animae sup- 
plicia. Beatae Mariae animam gladius pertransibit, lit revelentur 
multorum cordium cogitationes. Si in judicii severitatem capax 
ilia Dei Virgo ventura est, desiderare quis audebit a Deo judicari? — 
Id. ibid. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 249 

the just shall pass through it, but that the unbelievers 
shall continue in it : " After the end of the world, (says 
he) the angels being sent forth to sever the good from 
the bad, shall that baptism be performed 5 when all 
iniquity shall be consumed in a furnace of fire, that so 
the just may shine like the sun in the kingdom of God 
their Father. And although a man be such a one 
as Peter, or as John, yet nevertheless shall he be bap- 
tized with this fire. For the great baptizer shall come, 
(for so I call him, as the angel Gabriel did, saying, c He 
shall be great/) and shall see a multitude of people 
standing before the gate of Paradise, and shall brandish 
the fiery sword, and shall say unto those who are on 
his right hand, who are not guilty of any grievous sins, 
'Enter ye in/"&c* 

St. Ambrose says the same also in another place, 
where he exempts none from this fiery trial, except our 
Savour Christ alone : " It is necessary (says he) that all 
that desire to return into Paradise, should be proved by 
this fire. For it is not without some mystery that it 
is written, that God having driven Adam and Eve 
out of Paradise, he is said to place at the entrance 
of Paradise a flaming sw T ord which turned every way. 
All must pass through the flames, whether he be John 
the Evangelist, whom our Saviour loved so much, that 
he said, concerning him, to Peter, &c. Or whether it be 
Peter himself, who had the keys of heaven committed 
unto him, and who walked upon the sea 3 he must be 
able to say, ' We have passed though the fire/ &c. But 
as for St. John, this brandishing of the flaming sword 
will soon be despatched for him, because there is no 
iniquity found in him, who was so beloved of the truth, 
&c. But the other (that is Peter) shall be tried as sil- 
ver is, and I shall be tried like lead : I shall burn till all 
the lead is quite melted down, and if there be no silver 

* Si quidem post consummationem soeculi missis angelis qui segre- 
gent bonos et malos, hocfuturum est baptisma, quando per caminum 
ignis iniquitas exuretur, ut in regno Dei fulgeant justi, sicut sol, 
in regno Patris sui. Et si aliquis, ut Pet r us sit, ut Johannes, bap- 
tizatur hoc igne. Veniet ergo Baptista Magnus, (sic enim eura 
nomino, quo modo Gabriel, &c.) — Ambros. in Ps. 118, Ser. 5. 

M 5 



25Q THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

at all found in me, (wretched man that I am) I shall be 
cas t into the lowest pit of hell."* 

As for the resurrection of the dead, Ambrose's opinion 
is, that all shall not be raised at once, but by degrees 
one after another, by a long yet certain order 3 f those 
who were believers rising first, according to the degrees 
of their merits : to which we are to refer that which he 
has elsewhere delivered, saying, that " Those who are 
raised up in the first resurrection, shall come to grace, 
without judgment ; but as for the rest, who are reserved 
for the second resurrection, they shall burn with fire till 
they have fulfilled the full space of time between the first 
and the second resurrection : or if they do not finish 
this time, they shall continue very long in their tor- 
ments. "J 

I shall leave the reader to take the pains in examin- 
ing whether or not that passage of his can be reconciled 
to any good sense, where he says, that before the pub- 
lication of the law of Moses, adultery was not an unlaw- 
ful thing : ' ' We are to take notice in the first place (says 
he) that Abraham living before the giving of the law 
by Moses, and before the Gospel, in all probability, 
adultery was not as yet forbidden : the crime is punish- 
ed after the time of the law made which forbids it ; for 
things are not condemned before the law, but by the 

* Omnes oportet per ignem probari, quicunque ad Paradisum re- 
dire desiderant. Non enim otiose scriptum est, quod ejectis Adam 
et Eva, posuit Deus in exitu Paradisi gladium igneum versatilem. 
Omnes oportet transire per nammas, sive Joannes Evangelista sit, 
quern itadilexit Dominus, ut de eo diceret ad Petrum, &c. Sive ille 
sit Petrus qui claves accepit regni coelorum, qui supra mare ambula- 
vit, oportet dicat, Transivimus per ignem, &c. Sea Joaimi cito ver- 
sabitur igneus gladius, quin non invenitur in eo iniquitas, quern dilexit 
aequitas, &c. Sed ille (Petrus) examinabitur ut argentum ; ego exa- 
minabor ut plumbum, donee plumbum tabescat ardebo, si nihil ar- 
genti in me inventum fuerit, (lieu me) in ultima inferni detrudar. — 
Id. in Ps. c 11 ad. scr. 20. 

f Licet in momento resuscitentur omnes, omnes tamen meritorum 
ordine suscitantur. — 1. /. de Fid. Resurrectionis* 

X Bead qui habent partem in prima resurrectione ; isti enim sine 
judicio veni unt ad gratiam. Qui autem non veniunt ad primam re- 
rarrectionem, sed ad Becundam reservantur, isti orentur donee im- 
pleant tempore inter primam et secundam resurrectionem : aut si non 
impleverint, diutius in supplicio permanebunt.— /c/. in Ps. 1. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 251 

law;* and whether those discourses of his, which you 
meet with in his books, " De Justit. Virg. et ad Virg. et 
de Virg." and in other places, do not much disgrace and 
reflect upon the honourable state of marriage. I shall 
also leave to the consideration of the judicious reader 
whether there be more of solidity or of subtlety in that 
exposition which he gives us, of the promise made by 
God to Noah, after the flood ; telling him that he 
had set his bow in the clouds, to be a token of a co- 
venant between him and the whole earth : on these 
words St. Ambrose utterly and fiercely denies that by 
this bow is meant the rain-bow ; but will have it to be 
I know not what strange allegorical bow. ' ' Far be it 
from us (says he) that we should call this God's bow 5 
for this bow, which is called Iris (the rain-bow) is seen 
indeed in the day-time, but never appears at all in the 
night."f And therefore he understands by this bow, 
the invisible power of God, by which he keeps all things 
in one certain measure : enlarging and abating it as he 
sees cause. Neither do I know whether that opinion of 
his, which you have in his first book " De Spiritu Sancto," 
is any whit more justifiable, where he affirms that 
" Baptism is available and legitimate, although a man 
should baptise in the name either of the Son or of the 
Holy Ghost only, without mentioning the other two per- 
sons of the Trinity." J 

Epiphanius, as he was a man of a very good, honest, and 
plain nature, and (if I may be permitted to speak my own 
opinion) a little too credulous, and moreover very san- 
guine and fierce in maintaining whatever he thought was 
right and true 3 so has he the more easily been induced to 
deliver and to receive things for sound which yet were not 
so 5 and pertinaciously to defend them, after he had once 
embraced them. It would take up both too much time 
and paper, if I were to enumerate all those things where- 

* Sed consideremus primum, quia Abraham ante legem Moysis et 
ante Evangelium fuit, nondum interdictum adulterium videbatur. 
Poena criminis et tempore legis est, nee ante legem ulla rei damnatio 
est, sed ex lege Ambros. I. I. de Abr. Patr. c. 4. 

f Absit ut hunc arcum Dei dicamus ; hie enim arcus, qui Iris dici- 
tur, per diem videri solet, per noctem non apparet, &c. Est ergo 
virtus invisibilis Dei, &c. — Id. lib. de JSfoe, et Area, c. Tl. ^ 

\ Id. lib. l, de Spir. Sanct. cap. 3. 



252 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

in he failed : if you choose you may have an account 
of a number of them in the notes of the Jesuit Petavius, 
his interpreter ; who takes the liberty to correct him fre- 
quently, and sometimes also very rudely. Thus first of 
all he accuses him of obscurity, and of falsehood also, 
in the opinion he held on the year and day of our 
Saviour's nativity ;* saying that some of his expres- 
sions regarding this point, are more obscure and dark 
than the riddles of the Sphinx. Truly he has reason 
enough to say so, of what he has delivered on the year 
of our Saviour's nativity ; but as for the day of that year, 
whether it were the sixth of January, as Epiphanius 
held, with the Church of Egypt ;f or else it were the 
twenty-first of December, which is the general opinion 
at this day ; I think it very great rashness for any man 
to affirm either the one or the other 3 neither of these 
opinions having any better ground on the one side than 
on the other. He likewise in plain terms gives him the 
lie, upon that place where he says that " In the begin- 
ning of the Church the apostles had ordained that the 
Christians should celebrate the Passover at the same time 
and in the same manner as those of the Circumcision 
did 3 and that those who were then made bishops at 
Jerusalem being of the Circumcision, it was necessary 
that all the world should follow them, and should like- 
wise keep the Passover as they did. "J Neither do I see 
whereon he could ground that fancy of his, which he 
proposes to us as a certain truth : " That the devil, 
before the coming of Christ, was in hopes of grace and 
pardon ; and that out of this persuasion of his, he never 
shewed himself all that while refractory towards God ; 
but that having understood, by the manifestation of our 
Saviour, that there was left him no hope of salvation, 
he from thenceforth had grown exceedingly enraged, do- 
ing as much mischief as he possibly could against Christ 
and his Church :" — 'Hkove yap aei tljv 7rpo(pi]ru)y Karay- 
y eWo )'T it) v rov Xpiarov Trapovatav Xvrpuxriv kao\xEvr)v rwy 
ajiapT7)(javT(t)V i kat Clu Xpicrrov f.i£Tavoovvrm> e%'ojjli(e re 

* Petav. in Epiphan. p. 127, 132. 
t Epiphan, Hum-. 51, quae < st Alog. 

i Petav. ibid, ad liar. 70, num. 10. 






IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 253 

TEvfcadai tivoq ekeovc. 'Ore Se elSev 6 rakag rov \piaroy 
firf SefciJiEVOv avrov rrjv wept (TiOTeptag iwiarpo^rjv, &C* 

St. Hierome, the boldest and most judicious censurer 
of the ancients, has also left to posterity something, 
whereon they may exercise the same critical faculty that 
he has so happily employed upon others. For how 
should a man be able to make good that which he has af- 
firmed so positively, respecting God's providence : where 
he says, that it takes care of all men indeed in general, and 
also of each particular man; but not of other things, whe- 
ther they be inanimate or irrational. " It is an absurd 
thing (says he) so to abase the majesty of God, as to 
make him take particular notice how many gnats are 
bred, or die every hour 3 and how many bugs, fleas, and 
flies there are through the whole earth -, and how many 
fishes swim in the water; and which among the smaller 
fishes are to be a prey to the greater. Let us not be 
such foolish flatterers of God, as by making his power 
descend even to the lowest things, to disparage our- 
selves ; while we say, that his providence in like manner 
extends both to rational and irrational creatures. "f 

I shall not examine here whether this opinion be 
justifiable or not : but this I am sure of, that you will 
hardly be able to make it good out of these words of our 
Saviour Christ, — " Are not two sparrows sold for a 
farthing ? and yet one of them shall not fall on the 
ground without your Father." Yet supposing that this 
opinion might be defended, it is however evident that 
this Father has dashed out a little too much, when he 
derides all those as fools and absurd people, who 
choose rather to adore the knowledge of God as infinite, 
than to bound it and make it finite : and for my 
part I should rather fear that there would be much 
more rashness in the one than folly in the other. 

* Epiphan. in Pan. cap. 1. Hser. 39. 

f Cseterum absurdum est ad hoc Dei deducere majestatem, ut sciat 
per singula momenta quot nascantur culices, quotve moriantur, quot 
cimicum et pulicum et muscarum sit in terra multitudo, quantipisces 
in aqua natent, et qui de minoribus majorum prsedse cedere debeant. 
Non simus tarn fatui adulatores Dei, ut dum potentiam, ejus ad ima 
detrahimus, in nos ipsos injuriosi simus, eandem ration abilium quam 
irrationabilium providentiam esse dicentes. — Hier. Horn, 1, in Abac. 



254 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

This same man, who here limits the knowledge and 
providence of God, in another place extends to infinity 
the presence of the souls of departed saints ; not by 
any means suffering them to be confined and shut up in 
any certain place. The reason which he gives of this 
his opinion is indeed very wonderful : for, " they always 
follow the Lamb (says he) wherever he goes ; foras- 
much therefore as the Lamb is present everywhere, we 
ought to believe that they also who are with the Lamb 
are present everywhere."* 

Where are those schools of logic, however loose and 
remiss they may be, that would not give a scholar the 
ferula, if he should but offer to argue thus, confound- 
ing the divinity and the humanity of our Saviour 
together 5 and from that which is spoken in respect of 
the one, concluding that which is proper to the other ? 
So in another place, in order to bring all the several 
pieces of an allegory together, and to make them 
meet in their proper point, he makes the souls of 
the blessed saints, and of the angels themselves, sub- 
ject to sin.f 

I shall pass by what he has spoken so reproachfully, 
both against marriage in general, and against second 
marriages in particular 3 where he uses such harsh ex- 
pressions, that though we should, in explaining them, 
follow those very rules which he himself has laid down 
in an epistle of his written to Pammachius on this very 
subject, — it seems notwithstanding an impossible thing 
to acquit him of holding the same opinion on mar- 
riage as Tertullian did, which was condemned by the 
Church as being contrary to the honour of marriage 
and the authority of the Scripture. As for example, 
how much honey or sugar would be sufficient to sweeten 
that which he says, writing to a certain widow, named 
Furia, where he tells her, " That she was not so worthy 

* Sequuntur Agnum quocumque vadit : si Agnus ubique, &c. et 
Mr <|ui rum Agno sunt ubique esse credendi sunt. — Hier. contra 
Vigil, loin. 2, /;. 161. 

I Nulli pericnlosom, nulli videatur esse blasphemum, quod et in 
apostoloa ixmdise venenum diximus potuisse subrepere, cum etiam 
de Angelifl hoc dictum putamus, &C. — Id. cp. 164, ad Vain. t.3. 
p. 210. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 255 

to be commended, if she continued a widow, as she 
would be to be cursed if she married again : seeing she 
was not able, being a Christian, to preserve that which 
many women of her family had done, being but Pagans."* 
These expressions of his he repeats again in the follow- 
ing epistle, where he dissuades one Ageruchia from 
marrying again ;f and for this purpose makes use of 
very unseemly comparisons ; applying to those women 
who re-marry, that proverb which St. Peter made use of 
in another sense, — " The dog is turned to his own vomit 
again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in 
the mire." Is not this the same as if he in plain terms 
ranked second marriages among unclean and polluted 
things ? Not unlike this is that which he says in another 
place in these words : " I do not at all condemn those 
who marry the second, third, or (if any such thing may 
be) the eighth time : nay, more than this, I receive 
also even a penitent harlot." J Thus he places those 
women that marry a second time, in the same rank as 
those that submit to prostitution. And he is so full of 
such expressions as these, that the whole Canary 
islands themselves would hardly be sufficient to sweeten 
them. 

Certainly if Hierome had not believed that there was 
some uncleanness in marriage, he would never have 
been so unwilling as he was to speak out, and con- 
fess in plain terms that Adam should nevertheless have 
had carnal knowledge of Eve his wife, though they had 
both of them continued in their state of innocence : § which 

* Ut non tarn laudanda si vidua perseveres, quam execranda, si 
id Christana non serves, quod per tanta ssecula Gentiles foeminae cus- 
todierunt. Mox, p. 90,; Canis revertens ad vomitum, et sus lota ad 
volutabrum luti Id.ep. 10. ad Fur. t. 1, p. 89 & 101. 

f Haec brevi sermone perstrinxi, ut ostendam adolescentulam 
meam non preestare monogamiam generi suo, sed reddere ; nee tarn 
laudandam esse si tribit, quam omnibus execrandam si negare tenta- 
verit Id. ep. 11. ad Ageruch. t. 1, /;. 101. 

\ Non damno digamos, imo nee trigamos, et si dici potest octo- 
gamos : Plus aliquid inferam, etiam scortantem recipio poenitentem. 
Id. I. 1. adv. Jovin. p. 4. 

§ Quod si objeceris, antequam peccarent, sexum viri et foeminae 
fuisse divisum, et absque peccato eos potuisse conjungi, quid futu- 
rum fuerit incertum est, &c.— Id. lib. 1. adv. Jovin. p. 51. 






256 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

thing is evident enough to any one that considers the 
second chapter of Genesis, from ver. 18, to the end. 
Nevertheless this Father durst not positively affirm any 
such thing, fearing lest he might thus impose some 
uncleanness upon the state of innocence, in case he 
should have allowed them the use of marriage. Neither 
is his opinion more sound, on the eating of flesh, which 
being unknown to the world before the flood, was 
afterwards permitted unto mankind ; but (as he believes) 
in the very same manner as divorce was heretofore 
permitted to the Jews, only from the hardness of their 
hearts, whence it follows, (as he also says in express 
terms) that it was abolished by our Saviour Christ, in 
the same manner as divorce and circumcision were. 
" And whereas it is objected against us by Jovinian, 
(saith he) that God, in the second benediction, permitted 
the eating of flesh, which he did not in the first : he is 
to take notice, that as the liberty to put away a man's 
wife, according to the words of our Saviour, was not 
granted from the beginning, but was afterwards per- 
mitted to mankind, for the hardness of their heart : 
in like manner was the eating of flesh unknown until 
the flood ; but after the flood the sinews and virulency 
of flesh were thrust into our mouths, as the quails 
were given to the people of Israel murmuring in the 
wilderness/'* 

Certainly divorce is a thing which is evil in itself, and 
is contrary to the creation of the man and woman, and 
to marriage also, which was instituted by God in Para- 
dise : as is divinely proved by our Saviour, when 
disputing with the Jews on this point. If therefore the 
eating of flesh be like it, this also is evil and unlawful 
in itself. Marcion, and the Manichees, could hardly 
have said more than this. 



* Quod autem nobis objicit in secunda Dei benedictione come- 
dendarum carnium licentiam datam, quae in prima concessanon fue- 
rat ; sciat, quomodo repudium juxta eloquium Salvatoris ab initio non 
dabatur, sed propter duritiem cordis nostri per Moysem humano 
generi concessuin est, sic et esuni carnium usque ad diluvium igno- 
tum fuisse ; post diluvium vero quasi in eromo munnuranti populo 
coturnices, ita dentibus nostris nervos, et virulentias carnis iugestas. 
— Ihcron. lib. 1. adv. Jovi/i. 



THE DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 257 

In another place St. Hierome seems to be of opinion 
that our Saviour has utterly forbidden the use of an 
oath to Christians,* which doctrine is evidently contrary 
both to the Scriptures and to reason. It will be a dif- 
ficult matter also to clear him from the suspicion of that 
error, some traces of which are apparently to be seen 
in St. Cyprian, the efficacy of the sacraments ; as we 
have observed before. For only hear what he says. 
" The priests also, (says he) who serve at the Eucharist, 
and distribute the blood of our Saviour to his people, 
commit a great impiety against the law of Christ, in 
thinking that the Eucharist is made by the words and 
not by the life of the person who consecrates it ; and 
that the solemn prayers only of the priests are neces- 
sary, and not their merits also. "f 

On the state of the blessed after the resurrection, he 
says, though very faintly, that they shall live without 
eating. " What then will you say (these are his own 
words), Shall we eat after the resurrection -, I know 
not that, I confess ; for we find no such thing written : 
yet if I were to speak my opinion, I do not think we 
shall eat."J 

To give a judgment in general of this author, I do 
not know whether or not we may allow as being good, 
and perfectly conformable to the discipline of our Sa- 
viour Christ, the course which he usually observes in 
his disputations, wresting the words of his adversaries 
from the authors' intention ; and framing to himself such 
a sense as is not to be found in them 5 and then fiercely 

* Hoc quasi parvulis Judaeis fuerat lege concessum, ut quo modo 
victimas immolabant Deo, ne eas idolis immolarent, sic et jurare 
permitterentur in Deum ; non quod recte hoc facerent, sed quod 
melius esset hoc Deo id exhibere, quam dsemonibus. Evangelica 
autem Veritas non recipit juramentum, &c. — Hier. Com. in Matth. 
t.6. p. 15. 

f Sacerdotes quoque qui Eucharistise serviunt, et sanguinem Do- 
mini populis ejus dividunt, impie agunt in legem Christi, putantes 
Eucharistiam imprecantis facere verba, non vitam ; et necessariam 

esse tantum solennem orationem, et non sacerdotum merita Id. 

Com. in Soph. torn. 5, p. 489. 

} Ergo, inquies, et nos post resurrectionem comesuri sumus ? 
Nescio ; non enim scriptum est ; et tamen si quaeritur, non puto co- 
mesuros. — Id. ep. 61, ad Pammach. t. 2, p. 252. 



258 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

encountering this giant of his own making, mixing with 
it strange abusive language and sarcasms, and tart ex- 
pressions borrowed from profane authors ; in which kind 
of learning he was indeed very eminent. 

St. Augustine, in the contest he had with him,* said 
that the holy ceremonies of the Jews, though they were 
abolished by Jesus Christ, might yet notwithstanding 
in the beginning of Christianity be observed by those 
who had been brought up in them from their infancy, 
even after they had believed in Jesus Christ, provided 
they did not put their trust in them $ because that sal- 
vation which was signified by these holy ceremonies, 
was imparted unto us by Jesus Christ : which doctrine 
of his is both godly and consonant also to what is urged 
by St. Paul, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, and 
elsewhere, on Christian liberty, by which we both may, 
and ought to use, or abstain from such things as are in 
themselves indifferent, according as shall be requisite 
for the edification of our neighbour. 

Now St. Hierome here would make him believe, that 
his meaning is, that all those who believed among the 
Jews, were subject to the law, and that the Gentiles were 
the only people whom the faith in Christ had exempted 
from this yoke.f Then presently he takes occasion to 
pass as tart and as cutting a sarcasm upon him as he 
could 5 saying, that since it was so that all the believers 
among the Jews were bound to observe the law, St. 
Augustine himself, who was the most eminent bishop in 
the whole world, should do well to publish this his opi- 
nion, and to endeavour to bring over all his fellow 
bishops to be of his mind. But he had then to deal 
with an able adversary, and one that knew well enough 
how to make good his words, and to clear them from 
that interpretation which the other had put upon them, 
and to overthrow whatsoever he had impertinently urged 
against him ; as any man may perceive in that excellent 
and divine answer of his to St. Hierome, on this point, 

* Aug. Ep. ad Hier. quae est 87, inter Ep. Hier. torn. 2, p. 518. 

f Hoc si placet, imo quia placet, ut quicunque credunt ex Judaeis 
debitorea sint legis faciendae ; tu, ut episcopus in toto orbe notissi- 
mus. debet banc promulgare sententiam, etin assensum tuum omnes 
CO-episcopoi trahere. — Hier. Ep. 89, ad Aug. t. 2, /;. 525. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 259 

and the whole substance of his letters.* The case was 
otherwise between him and Ruffinus : for there he grap- 
pled with one much below his match,, and dealt his blows 
upon a mere wooden statue ; one that had scarcely any 
reason in what he said, and yet much less dexterity in 
defending himself. But the sport of it is, to see that af- 
ter he has handsomely belaboured and goaded this piti- 
ful thing, from head to foot, and sometimes till the blood 
followed, he at length protests, at the end of his first 
book, "That he had spared him for the love of God, and 
that he had not afforded words to his troubled breast, 
and had set a watch before his mouth ; according to the 
example of the Psalm ist.f 

In another place he reads him a long lecture, $ telling 
him that they were not to use railing language in their 
disputations, nor to leave the question in hand 5 and to 
labour to bring in what accusations they could against 
each other, which are more proper at the bar than in the 
Church, and fitter to fill a lawyer's bill than a church- 
man's papers. 

'Tis true indeed, that those who have been galled by 
him, are themselves to blame ; forasmuch as he, out of 
his own candid disposition, courteously gave them warn- 
ing himself 5 telling them beforehand, " That those that 
meddled with him had to do with a horned beast.'*§ Yet 
some perhaps may still very much wonder how it should 
come to pass, that all those watchings and strict disci- 
pline which he endured in Bethlehem and the Desert of 
Arabia, should not have mortified these horns : to which 
I have no more to say than this ; that God, by a certain 
secret and wise judgment, has suffered these holy men, 
notwithstanding all those excellent gifts of charity, pa- 
tience, and meekness, wherewith they were abundantly 



* Aug. Ep. ad Hier. quae est 97, inter Ep. Hier. torn. 2. p. 550. 

f Sentisne quid taceam, quod aestuanti pectori verba non commo- 
dem ? et cunvPsalmista loquar, Pone Domine custodiam ori meo, &c. 
— Hier. lib. 1, contra Ruff. t. 2, p. 311. 

J Quis omissa causa in superflua criminum objectione [versatus 
est ? quae non chartae ecclesiasticae, sed libelli debent Judicum con- 
tinere — Id. in Apol. adv. Ruff. torn. 2, p. 373. 

§ Hoc |unum denuncio, et repetens iterum iterumque monebo, 
cornutam bestiam petis. — Id. ApoL 1, contra Ruff.t. 2, p. 311. 



260 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

endued, sometimes to let fall such slips as these on seve- 
ral particular occasions ; to let us understand, that there 
is nothing absolutely perfect but God alone ; all men, 
however accomplished, carrying about them some re- 
liques of human infirmity. 

However it be, this course of St. Hierome's makes 
me doubt whether he has dealt no better with others 
than he has with St. Augustin, wresting their words 
much further than he ought to have done. But some- 
times he goes further yet, and speaks even of the pen- 
men of the Old and New Testament in such a disrespect- 
ful manner, that I am very dissatisfied with his pro- 
ceedings. As for example, where he says, in plain terms, 
without any circumlocution, that " the inscription of the 
altar at Athens was not expressed in those very words 
which are delivered by St. Paul, in the Acts, chap. 17, 
to the unknown god ; but in other terms thus: to 

THE GODS OF EUROPE, ASIA, AND OF AFRICA J TO THE 

unknown and foreign gods.* So likewise where 
he tells us, and repeats the same too in many several 
places, that St. Paul knew not how to speak, nor to 
make a discourse hang together :"t and " that he makes 
solecisms sometimes 5 and that he knew not how to 
render a hyperbaton, nor to conclude a sentence :"{ and 
" that he was not able to express his own deep concep- 
tions in the Greek tongue : and that he had no good utter- 
ance, but had much ado to deliver his mind."§ Again, in 
another place he tell us, that M It was not out of modesty, 
but it was the plain, naked truth that he told us, when 
the apostle said of himself, that he was imperitus sermone, 
(rude in speech) ; because the truth is, he could not 

* Inscriptio autem arae non ita erat, ut Paulus asseruit, ignoto deo ; 
Bed ita: deis europ^e, asi^e, et afric^e, deis ignotis et pere- 
grinis. — Hier. Com. in Ep. ad Tit. t. 6, 

t Hebraeus ex Hebraeis profundos sensus aliena lingua exprimere 
non valebat. — Hier, Com. 3, in Ep. ad Gal, 348, t. 6. 

J Iste qui soloecismos in verbis tacit, qui non postest hyperbaton 
reddere, sententiamque concludere, audacter sibi vendicat sapientiam, 
&c. — Id. Comm. 2, in Ep. ad E plies, t. 6, ;;. 384. 

§ Qui nonjuxta humilitatem, ut plerique aistimant, sed vere dixe- 
rit, imperitus sermone, non tamen scientia, Hebraeus ex Hebraeis, 
&c., profundos sensus Grwco sermone non explieat, et quid cogitat, 
in verba vix promit Com. in Ep. ad Til. t. 6, ;;. 440. 









IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 261 

deliver his mind to others in clear and intelligible lan- 
guage/'* 

He says moreover, (which is yet much worse than all 
the rest) that i( the apostle, disputing with the Galatians, 
counterfeited ignorance, as knowing them to be a dull, 
heavy people -, and that he had let fall some such ex- 
pressions as might possibly have offended the more 
intelligent sort of people, had he not beforehand 
told them, that he spake after the manner of men.' f 
Whosoever shall have had but the least specimen of the 
force and vigour, and of the candour of the spirit and 
discourse of this holy apostle, can never see him thus 
used, without being extremely astonished at it : espe- 
cially if he but consider, that this kind of speeches, 
although they had perhaps some ground (which yet 
they have not), must needs scandalize and give offence 
to the weaker sort of people ; and therefore ought not 
to have been uttered, without some qualification and 
softening down. 

St. Augustin, I confess, is much more discreet in this 
particular, everywhere testifying (as there is very great 
reason he should) the great respect he bare to the 
authors of the books of the Holy Scriptures, and never 
speaking of any of them, whether of their style or 
sense, without great singular admiration. 

As for his private opinions, and those of other men 
w 7 hich he embraces, he is not without his errors also. 
Such is that harsh sentence of his, which he has pro- 
nounced upon all infants that die before baptism - y whom 
he will have not only to be deprived of the vision of 
God, which is the punishment to which the ordinary 
opinion of the Church condemns them; but he will 

* Illud, &c. etsi imperitus sermone, &c. nequaquam Paulum de 
humilitate dixisse ; profundos enim et reconditos sensus lingua non 
explicat, et cum ipse sentiat, quid loquatur, in alienas aures puro 
non potest transferre sermone Ep. 15, ad Algas. Q. 10, t. 3. p. 167. 

f Apostolus Galatis quoque, quos paulo ante stultos dixerat, fac- 
tus est stultus : non enim ad eos his usus est argumentis, quibus ad 
Romanos, sed simplicioribus, et quse stultipossent intelligere, et pene 

de trivio Unde ^manifestum est id fecisse Apostolum quod 

promisit nee reconditis ad Gal. usum esse sensibus, sed quotidianis, 
et vilibus, et quae possent, nisi prsemisisset, secundum hominem dico, 
prudentibus displicere. — Id. Com. 1. Ep. ad Gal.t, 6,;?. 304, 305. 



262 



THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 



further have them to be tormented in hell.* In this he 
is also followed by Gregorius Ariminensis, a famous 
doctor in the schools,f where he is called, by reason of 
this rigour of his, tormentum irifantium. He maintains 
also, that the Eucharist is necessary for little infants, as 
we have formerly noted to another purpose. To which 
we must also add that opinion to which he evidently 
inclines, that the soul is derived from the Father to the 
Son,J and is engendered of his substance as well as the 
body, and is not immediately created by God, which is 
the common opinion at this day. There is no man but 
knows that he everywhere attributes to the angels a 
corporeal nature j § and also that he conceives, against all 
sense and reason, that the whole world was created all 
in an instant of time ;|| and refers the six days' space of 
time, wherein the creation is said to have been perfected, 
to the different degrees of the knowledge of the angels. 
He believed also, with most of the ancient Fathers, that 
the souls of men departed are shut into I know not 
what secret dark receptacles, where they are to remain 
from the hour of their departure till the resurrection.^" 

We need not trouble ourselves any further in proving 
that he also might err in matters of religion, seeing that 
himself has made so clear and so authentic a confes- 
sion thereof, in his Retractations, where he corrects many 
things which he had formerly written, either foreign 
to or against the truth. 

I must here confess also, that in my opinion it would 
have added very much to the great and high esteem 
which we generally have of his learning and worth ; if 
he had been more positive and more resolved in the de- 



* Aug. t. 10. Ser. 14. de verb Ap. 

f Greg. Arim. in 2. sent. d. 33. 9. 3. 

{ Aug. t. 2. Ep. 28. tot. Mox f. 21. M. t. 3. de Gen. ad lit. lib. 
10. c. 11. t. 7. c. 2, de An. et ejus Orig. c. 14. 

§ See also toward the latter end of this chapter. — Id. t. 1. /. 1. 
contr. Acad. c. 7. 

|| Id. t. 3. 1. imperf. de Gen. ad lit. c. 7. et lib. 4. de Gen. ad 
lit. c. 31, 33, 34, et 1. c. 5. 11. 

^f Tempos quod inter hominis mortem et ultimam resurrectionem 
interpositum est animas, abditis receptaculis continet, &c — Id. t. 5. 
Euch. ad Law. cap. 109. VUU et t. 4. c. de car. jtro mortuis. c. 2. 
/. 1. d. Civil. Dei, c. 12. t. 9. Tract. 49. tfl Job.fol. 74. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 263 

cision of matters which he has treated, for the most 
part after the manner of the Academics, doubtingly, and 
waveringly all the way 5 insomuch that he leaves unde- 
cided not only whether the sun and the other stars be 
endued with reason,, but also whether the world itself 
be a living creature or not.* 

He that will but critically and carefully read the rest 
of the Fathers, may very easily observe in their writings 
various errors of a similar nature 5 and a man shall 
scarcely meet with any one Father of any note or 
repute, from whom some such thing or other has not 
escaped. As for my own part, who have taken upon 
me this troublesome subject very unwillingly, I shall 
content myself with these few instances already set 
down, seeing they do, in my judgment, make this busi- 
ness very clear -, the discovery whereof I have been ob- 
liged to undertake, though I wish rather they had been 
concealed. For seeing that these so eminent persons, 
who were of the greatest repute amongst all the ancients, 
have through human infirmity fallen into such errors in 
point of faith ; what ought we to expect from others 
who come much behind these in antiquity, learning, 
and holiness of life ? since Justin Martyr, Irenseus, 
Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, 
Hilary, Ambrose, Hierome, Augustin, and Epiphanius, 
(that is to say, the most eminent and most approved 
persons that ever were,) have yet stumbled in many 
places, and utterly failed in others. What have Cyril, 
Leo, Gregorius Romanus, and Damascene done, who 
have come after them, and in whom have appeared both 
much less gallantry of spirit and sanctity, than in the 
former ? Besides, if these men have been mistaken in 
matters of such great importance ; (some of them, for 
instance, on the nature of God ; some on the humanity 
of our Saviour Christ ; others on the quality of our soul ; 
and some on the state and condition thereof after 
death, and touching the resurrection ;) why for God's 
sake must they needs be infallible, when they speak of 
the points now disputed amongst us ? Why may not 

* Id. t. 3. Euchar. ad Laur. c. 58. de Gen. ad. lit. 1. 2. c. 18. 
Id. 1. l. Retract, c. 11. 



264 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

the same thing have happened to them in the one that 
has so manifestly befallen them in the other ? It is not 
very probable (as we have said before) that they so 
much as ever thought of our differences : and it is 
much more improbable, that ever they had any inten- 
tion of being our judges in the decision of them, as we 
have before proved. 

But now put the case, that they were acquainted with 
the business, and that they did intend to clear our 
doubts, and to give us their positive determination, 
regarding the same in their books ; who shall assure us 
that they have had better success here than they had in 
so many other things, wherein we have before heard 
them give their verdict so utterly against all justice and 
reason ? He that has erred on the subject of the resur- 
rection, is it not possible that he should be in an error 
on the state of the soul after this life ? He that could 
be ignorant what the nature of Christ's body was, 
must he necessarily have a right judgment on the Eu- 
charist ? I do not see what solid reason of this diffe- 
rence can possibly be given. It cannot proceed but 
from one of these two causes, neither of which have yet 
any place here. For it happens sometimes that he who 
is deceived in one particular has yet better fortune in 
another ; by reason perhaps of his taking more heed to 
and using more attention in the consideration of the 
latter than he did in the former ; or else by reason that 
one of the points is easier to be understood than the 
other. For in this case, though his attention be as 
great in the one as in the other, yet notwithstanding he 
may perhaps be able to understand the easy one, but 
shall not be able to master the difficult one. But now, 
neither of these reasons c n be alleged here : for why 
should the ancients have used less care and attention in 
the examination of those points wherein they have erred? 
Or why should they have used more in those points, 
which are at this day controverted amongst us ? Are 
not those ancient points of religion of as great impor- 
tance as these latter > Is there less danger in being ig- 
norant on the nature of God, than on the authority of the 
Pope ? or on the state of the faithful in the resurrection, 
than on the punishment of souls in purgatory ; the real 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 2G5 

qualities of the body of Christ, than the nature of the 
eucharist ; the cup of his passion, than the cup of his 
communion ? Is it more necessary to salvation to know 
him sacrificed upon the altar, than really suffering upon 
the cross ? Who sees not that these matters are of 
equal importance ? or if there be any difference betwixt 
them, that those points wherein the Fathers have erred, 
are in some sort more important than those which we 
now dispute about ? 

We shall therefore conclude, that if they had both 
the one and the other before their eyes, they would 
questionless have used as much diligence at least, and 
attention in the study of the one as of the other; and 
consequently in all probability would have been either 
as successful, or else have erred as much, in the one as 
in the other. 

Neither may it be here objected, that those points 
wherein they have failed, are of more difficulty than 
those other wherein these men will needs have them to 
have been certainly in the right : for whosoever shall 
only consider them more narrowly, he will find that 
they are equally both easy and difficult : or if there be 
any difference betwixt them in this particular, those 
which they have erred in, were the easier of the two to 
have been known. For I would fain have any man tell 
me what he thinks in his conscience, whether it be not 
as easy to judge by reason, and by the Scripture, 
whether or not the saints shall dwell upon earth after 
the resurrection ; as it is to determine whether, after they 
are departed this life, they shall go into purgatory or 
not ? Is it a harder matter to know whether the angels 
are capable of carnal love, than it is to judge whether 
the Pope, as he is Pope, be infallible or not ? And if it 
be answered here, that the Church having already de- 
termined these latter points, and having not declared 
itself at all touching the other, has taken away all the 
difficulty of the one, but has left the other in their former 
doubtful state : this is to presuppose that which is the 
main question ; or rather it is manifestly false : the 
Church in the first ages having not, to our knowledge, 
passed any public and authentic judgment on the points 
now controverted, as we have already proved. 

N 



26*6 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

As therefore these holy men (if at least they had any 
thought at all of our present disputes) had an equally 
clear insight in these things ; both according to all 
reason and all probability, they would have also come 
unto them with an equal attention and affection. And 
I believe that there is no man but sees, that if they 
might err in the decision of the one, it is altogether as 
possible that they might be mistaken also in their judg- 
ment upon the other. 

Now those books of theirs, which are left us, proclaim 
aloud and openly enough, (as we have seen by those 
few testimonies, which we have but just now produced 
out of them,) that they have erred, and sometimes also 
very grievously, on those first questions : it remains 
therefore to say, that their judgment is not any whit 
more infallible in our present controversies. I could be 
content that you had demonstrated to any Protestant, 
by clear and undeniable reasons, that St. Hilary, in 
those passages which are produced out of his works 
for the same purpose, has positively taught the real 
presence of Christ in the eucharist ; and I could be well 
contented that he should grant you the same ; which 
yet perhaps he will never do. However, after all, he 
has this still to remind you of him, that this is the self- 
same St. Hilary, who in the same book maintains, that 
the body of Christ felt no pain upon the cross. And if 
he were in an error in this particular, why must he 
necessarily be right in the other ? The question on the 
body of Christ is of as great importance as that of the 
eucharist : and it is besides much more clearly decided 
in the Scriptures ; where there is nothing that obliges 
us in the least degree to fancy any such thing of the 
body of Christ, as St. Hilary has done : but where, on 
the contrary, there seems to be some kind of ground for 
the opinion which he is pretended to have had on the 
eucharist. Forasmuch therefore (will the Protestant 
say) as that in a thing which is of equal importance, 
and of much less difficulty, he has manifestly erred, 
who can assure me, that in this point, which is both less 
necessary andmorc difficult, he may not also be mistaken. 
The same has he to reply upon you, on those other alle- 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 267 

gations, which you produce from the rest of the Fathers ; 
every one of whom has either really erred, or else possibly 
might have erred, in matters of religion. Neither can 
you hope that any solid answer should be given to these 
things 5 especially if you but consider that the practice, 
both of the Fathers, and also of our adversaries them- 
selves, has clearly confirmed this our position. For 
St. Augustin,* in that dispute of his which he main- 
tained against St. Herome, seeing him produce the 
testimonies of seven authors (he taking no notice at all 
of the words of the first four of them) answers no more 
than that some of them were guilty of heresy, and the 
rest of error ; which answer is very insufficient, unless 
you allow that the testimony of a man who has 
erred in any one particular point of faith is null and 
invalid. 

The Fathers of the eleventh council of Nice took the 
very same course in answering an objection brought 
against them by the Iconoclasts, who alleged a certain 
passage for themselves out of Eusebius bishop of 
Caesarea ; answering them nothing more than that the 
author they cited was an Arian.f We need not examine 
whether this answer of theirs be true or not : and if so, 
whether it be to the purpose or not : it is sufficient for 
us that it appears hence by their making use of this 
kind of answer, that they took it for granted that he 
that had failed in one point was not to be trusted in 
any other. Cardinal Perron, and the rest of the learn- 
ed of that party, make use of the same manoeuvre, 
rejecting the testimonies brought against them out of 
Socrates or Sozomene, two ecclesiastical historians, 
because they say they were Novatians. Those who put 
forth the general councils at Rome disauthorize Gelasius 
Cyzicenus, who was the compiler of the acts of the 
council of Nice, by producing many gross oversights 
committed by him in that piece of his.J 

* Aug. Ep. ad Hier. Ep. Hier. 47. t. 2, p. 551, & inter Epist. 
Aug. 19. t. 2. 

t Cone. VII. Act. 6. torn. 3. Cone. Gen. p. 627. 

j In Praefat. praefixa Act. Cone. Niceni Gelas. Cyzic. in edit. 
Rom. Cone. Gen. torn. l. 

N 2 



268 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

As therefore we are to build upon the authority of 
any author who may justly be accused of error, it is 
most evident that the authority of the greatest part, 
and indeed in a manner of all the Fathers, may very 
well be called in question : seeing that you will hardly 
find any one of them that is not liable to this ex- 
ception. 

But it will here be objected perhaps, by some especi- 
ally, that although it be confessed that the opinion of 
one single Father possibly may be, and many times is, 
really false : yet however it is a very hard, or indeed an 
impossible thing, that what has been delivered unani- 
mously by many of them together, should be otherwise 
than true. But we have answered something already to 
this objection, where we took occasion to examine that 
maxim of Vincentius Lirinensis, on this particular. And 
in short, this is as if, having confessed that every par- 
ticular person of such a company is sick of some 
disease, we should notwithstanding still deny that 
the whole company, taken altogether, can possibly fall 
into any common distemper of body. It is not indeed 
altogether so probable, that many should be sick of 
any disease, as that one single person should : yet 
neither is the thing altogether impossible, especially 
when the disease is contagious, and besides not so 
well known ; as for the most part the errors of great 
persons are, whose very name bears them out, and 
makes them easily received by the ordinary sort, who 
run after them, and receive them without the least 
suspicion. 

Yet if reason will not answer, let experience persuade 
us to receive this truth. For it is most evident that 
some of those errors before specified have been main- 
tained, not by one, nor by two, nor by three of the 
Fathers only, but by many j by the major part, and 
sometimes also by all the Fathers of the same age ; at 
least of all those whose names and writings have come 
to our hands. We have heard how Justin Martyr 
maintained the opinion of the Millennaries, which is 
manifestly false in itself, and very dangerous in its 
consequences. Now this opinion he did not maintain 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 269 

alone ; the rest of the learned of his time were in a 
manner all of the same persuasion, as it appears by his 
own words. For, writing against Tryphon, and the Jews 
that agreed with him, he says, " That if they had by 
chance met with some who bare the name of Christians, 
but did not believe this article of faith, blaspheming 
the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and saying 
that there shall be no resurrection of the dead, but that 
the souls, immediately after death, are transported up 
to heaven, they must not take these persons for Chris- 
tians, no more than, in speaking truly and precisely, 
the Samaritans, or any other sect of Judaism, ought to 
be called Jews :" — Ei yap mi avvejiaXeaQe hfxeig tigi 
Xeyofxevoig yjyiGTtavoiCy kcu tovto fit) ojnoXoyovGLP, dXXa icai 
(DKacr^rjjjLety Tokfxoxn top Oeop A(3paajji, teat top Oeop IoxiaK, 
kcli top deov Iclkw/j, ol kcu Xeyovvt jjlt} elpai veicpujp amora- 
<jiv, d\\a a/ua tu> cltt 06 vr\ a xeiv Tag ypv^ag avrivp avaXafjfia- 
pevdai elg top ovpapop* fit) v7roXajjrjT£ avTOvg xpiaTiapove, 
&c* 

The false Christians, of whom he here speaks, were 
the Valentinians, and others of the Gnostics. He 
shortly proceeds, and says, u As for me, and the rest, 
of us who are right and orthodox in our opinions, and 
who are perfectly Christians, we know that there shall 
be both a resurrection of the flesh, and that the saints 
shall afterwards also spend a thousand years in Jeru- 
salem, which shall be rebuilt, beautified, and enlarged :" 
'EycJ Se, kcli el tlpeq elcrip opdoypiofiopeg Kara vclptci -^piffTia- 
voi, kcli rrapKOQ apcLGTaaiv yeprjveffdai eiriGTajxeda, kcu x*Aia 
err/ ev 'YepovaaXrifx GlxofiojJirjOeMTri, mi TrXaTvvOeMTrj, tkc.f 
By which words of his he seems to testify that all the 
Catholics in his time maintained this erroneous opinion, 
and that the heretics only rejected it. I know very 
well that he confesses before " that there were many 
who were perfect and religious Christians, who yet did 
not embrace the said opinion :" but let any man that 
can, reconcile these two contrary sayings : " That all 
orthodox Christians held this opinion ;" and " That there 
were some of the orthodox party that did not receive the 

* Just, contr. Tryph. p. 306. f Id. ibid. p. 307. 



270 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

same :" — UoWovg cT av Kai tcov rrjg Kadapag Kai evaefiovg 

OVThiV ypiGTLCLVUV yViOjJLTjg, tovto fir) yyiopi^eiv e(TT]fJLava (TOL.* 

Let any man that will, search also into Justin's 
works, and see whether this contradiction has not been 
foisted in, by the zeal of the following ages j who pro- 
bably might take offence at the business, in seeing such 
an opinion fathered upon all the true Christians by so 
great a martyr. It is sufficient for us that it is clear 
from this passage, that a very great part of the doctors, 
and of the faithful people of those times, maintained 
this error. We see that Irenaeus, who lived in the same 
time, and also Tertullian, who followed not long after 
him, were both of the same persuasion ; no one man, 
all this while, of whom we hear, offering to contradict 
them. Eussbius, and St. Hierome, and various other 
authors, inform us, that Papias bishop of Hierapolis, 
who nourished about the year of our Lord 110, was the 
author of this opinion, f 

It follows then from hence, that the consent of all 
the Fathers that are now extant, who lived in the same 
age, and maintained all the same opinion, is no infallible 
argument of the truth. And if you go down lower, you 
will find that the very same error was defended by seve- 
ral doctors of very great repute in the Church. 

St. Hierome, who in divers places of his commenta- 
ries has excellently and solidly refuted this foolish fancy, 
says, J that many among the learned Christians had 
maintained the same; and to those whom we have already 
mentioned, he adds Lactantius, Victorinus, Severus, 
and Apollinaris, " who is followed in this point (says he 
in another place) by great multitudes of Christians 
about us, insomuch that I already foresee and presage to 
myself, how many men's anger I shall hereby incur ;"§ 
that is, because he everywhere spoke against this 
opinion. 

* Just, contr. Tryph. p. 306. 

f Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. 3, c. 39. Hieron. 1. de Scrip. Eccles. in 
Papia. 

| Id. Comm. 11. in Ezech. t. 4, p. 9S4. 

§ Quern ( Apollinarium) nostrorum in hac parte duntaxat pluriraa 
Bl quitur multitude-, ut pnesaga mente jam cernam, quantorum in me 
rabies concitanda sit. — Id. Com. 18. in Isa. in Prcefat. 



i 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 271 

Whence it plainly appears, that in his time (that is 
to sajr, about the beginning of the fifth century) it was 
still in great request in the Church. And indeed how 
fierce soever he seems to be in his onset, yet he dares 
not condemn this opinion absolutely. a Although we 
embrace not this opinion, (says he) yet can we not con- 
demn it ; forasmuch as there have been various eminent 
personages and martyrs in the Church, who have main- 
tained the same. Let every man abound in his own 
sense, and let us leave the judgment of all things to 
God."* Whence you see, (as we may observe by the 
way) that the Fathers have not always held an opinion 
in the same degree that we do. For St. Hierome con- 
ceived this to be a pardonable error, of which we at this 
day will not endure to hear. 

If it be here answered, that the Church in the ages 
following condemned this opinion as erroneous, this is 
no more than to say, that the churches in the ages fol- 
lowing acknowledged that the joint consent of many 
Fathers together on one and the same opinion, is no 
solid proof of the truth of the same. If Dionysius 
Alexandrinus had been of any other judgment, he would 
never have written against Irenseus as he did; as St. 
Hierome also testifies! in one of his books of Commenta- 
ries before cited. And if we are to have regard to autho- 
rity only, the judgment of the succeeding church cannot 
then serve us, as a certain guide in this question, to in- 
form us on which side the truth is : for to allege it in 
this case were rather to oppose one authority against 
another, than to decide the controversy. 

As Dionysius Alexandrinus, St. Hierome, Gregory 
Nazianzen, and others, conceived not themselves bound 
to submit to the authority of Justin Martyr, Irenseus, 
Lactantius, Victorinus, Severus, and others ; so neither 
are we any more bound to submit to theirs : for their 
posterity owes them no more respect than they them- 
selves owed to their ancestors. It seems rather that in 

* Quae licet non sequamur, tamen daranare non possumus, quia 
multi ecclesiasticorum virorum, et martyres ista dixerunt: et unus- 
quisque in suo sensu abundet, et Domini cunctajudicio reserventur. 
— Hier. Com, 4. in Hierom. t. 4, p. 598. 

f Id. Com. IS, in Es. in Prsefat. 



272 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

reason they should owe them less ; because in proportion 
as they are far distant in time from the Apostles, who 
are as it were the spring and original of all ecclesiastical 
authority, so much do the credit and authority of the 
Doctors of the Church decrease. 
\7 If antiquity (as we would have it) be the mark of 

truth, then certainly that which is the most ancient is 
also the most venerable and the most considerable. And 
if there were no other argument but this, against the 
authority of many Fathers unanimously consenting in 
any opinion, yet would it clearly serve to lessen the 
same ; but there are yet behind many others, some of 
whom we shall here produce. We have before seen 
Justin Martyr, Irenseus, Tertullian, and St. Augustin, 
affirming all of them that heaven shall not be opened 
till the day of judgment; and that during this space of 
time the souls of all the faithful are shut up in some 
subterraneous place, except some small number of those 
who had the privilege of going immediately to heaven. 
The author of those Questions and Answers, that go under 
the name of Justin Martyr, maintains the same opinion, 
as you may see in the answers to the 60th and 74th 
questions. 

That I may not unprofitably spend both time and 
paper in bringing in all the particular passages, I say in 
general, that both the major part, and also the most emi- 
nent persons among the ancient Fathers, held this opi- 
nion, either absolutely, or at least in part. For besides 
Justin Martyr, Irenseus, Tertullian, and St. Augustin, 
and the author of those Questions and Answers we be- 
fore mentioned, which is a very ancient production in- 
deed, though falsely fathered upon Justin Martyr, it is 
clear that Origen, Lactantius, Victorinus, St. Ambrose, 
St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, (Ecumenius, Aretas, Pru- 
dentius, Theophilact, St. Bernard, and, among the Popes, 
Clemens Roraanus, and John XXII., were all of this 
opinion, as is confessed by all ; neither was this so ad- 
mirable and general consent of theirs contradicted by 
any declaration of the Church, for the space of fourteen 
hundred years ; neither yet did any one of the Fathers, 
so far as we can discover, take upon him to refute this 
error, as Dionysius Alexandrinus and St. Hierome did 






IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. c 273 

to refute the Millennaries ; all the rest of the Fathers 
being either utterly silent as to this particular, and so 
by this their silence going over in a manner into the 
opinion of the major part, or else contenting themselves 
with declaring sometimes here and there in their books, 
that they believed that the souls of the saints should 
enjoy the sight of God till the resurrection ; never for- 
mally denying the other opinion. 

But that which further shews that this opinion is both 
very ancient, and has been also very common among 
the Christians, is, that even at this day it is believed, 
and defended by the whole Greek Church : neither is 
there any of ail those who profess to follow the writ- 
ings of the Fathers, as the rule of their faith, who have 
rejected it, save only the Latins who have expressly also 
established the contrary at the council of Florence, 
held in the year of our Lord 1439, which is not above 
two hundred and twelve years ago.* 

Do but imagine now to yourselves a Vincentius Liri- 
nensis, standing in the midst of this council, and laying 
before them his own oracle before mentioned -, which is, 
" That we ought to hold for most certainly and un- 
doubtedly true, whatsoever has been delivered by the 
ancients unanimously and by a common consent :" and 
do but think, whether or not he should have been hissed 
out by these reverend Fathers, as one that made the 
truth, which is holy and immutable, to depend upon the 
authority of men ? For these men regarded not either 
the multitude, or the antiquity, or the learning, or the 
sanctity of the authors of this foolish opinion; but finding 
it to be false, without any ceremony reject2d it, as they 
thought they had good reason to do, and at once or- 
dained the contrary. 

Now I am verily persuaded, that there are very few 
points of faith, among all those which the Church of 
Rome would have the Protestants receive, for which 

* Diffinimus insuper, &c. illorum animas qui post susceptum 
baptizma nullam omnino maculam incurrerunt illas etiara quae post 
contractam peccati maculam vel in suis corporibus, vel eisdem exutae 
corporibus, pro ut superiiis dictum est, sunt purgatae, in ccelura mox 
recipi, et intueri clare ipsum Deum, trinum et unum. — Cone. Flo. 
in defin. t. 4, p. 584. 

N 5 






274 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

there can be alleged either more, or more clear and 
evident testimonies out of the Fathers, than for this. 
Forasmuch therefore, after all this, as it has not only 
been called in question, but has been also even utterly 
condemned ; who sees not, that the consent of many 
Fathers together, although any such event were to be 
had upon all the points now in debate, would yet be no 
sufficient argument of the truth of the same ? But I 
shall pass on to the rest. 

We have before heard that Tertullian, St. Cyprian 
(who was both a bishop and a martyr), Firmilianus (me- 
tropolitan of Cappadocia), Donysius (patriarch of Alexan- 
dria), together with the synods of bishops both of Africa, 
Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Bithynia, all held that the bap- 
tism of heretics was invalid and null. St. Basil,* who 
was one of the most eminent bishops of the whole 
Eastern Church, held also, in a manner, the very same 
opinion, and that a longtime too after the determination 
of the council of Nice ; as it appears by the epistle which 
he wrote to Amphilochius ; which is also put in among 
the public decrees of the Church, by the Greek Canonists. 
And yet this opinion is now confessed by all to be erro- 
neous. 

Many in like manner of the Fathers, as Tertullian,! 
Clemens Alexandrinus,J Lactantius, § and Africanus,|| 
believed that our Saviour Christ kept the Feast of the 
Passover but once only, after his baptism. Yet, notwith- 
standing this assent of theirs, the opinion is known to 
be very erroneous ; as Petavius ^f also testifies ; and 
is besides expressly contrary to the text of the Gospel. 

I shall not here say anything of the opinion of St. 
Chrysostom,** St. Hierome,ft St. Basil,};): and the Fa- 
thers of the council held at Constantinople,§§ under the 

* Basil, ep. Amphiloch. torn. 2. p, 758, 759. 
f Tertul. lib. contr. Jud. cap. S. 
j Clem. Alex. Strom. 1, 6. 
§ Lactant. Firmian. 1. 4. cap. 10. 

|| African, apod l-Iieron. Com. in Dan. cap. 10, torn. 4. pag, 1147. 
<[ Petav. Not. in Epiphan. p. 203. 
** Chrysost Horn, in statuas, et passim. 
if St. Hieron. Com. 1, in Matth. t. 6, p. 15. 
m1. Mom. in Pg. 14, t. 1, p. 154 et 155. 
£<*. A?.).?. xa< fVT6Ta?.ra/ fj/utv napa. tou awrr^o; yjtaro'j, (xr t o/zoaa;, &c. 

— Jt. Cone* Con.si. act. 1, t. 2, />. 199. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. Sgfo 

patriarch Flavius -, who seem all to have held, that an 
oath was utterly unlawful for Christians, under the New 
Testament. Neither shall I take any notice in this place 
of that conceit of Athanasius, St. Basil, and Methodius, 
as he is cited by John bishop of Thessalonica,* who 
all believed that the angels had bodies : to whom we may 
also add, (as we have shewn before,) St. Hilary, Justin 
Martyr, Tertullian, and very many more of the Fathers, 
who would all of them have the nature of angels to be 
such as was capable of the passions of carnal love ; of 
which number is even St. Augustin f also. Whosoever 
should now conclude from hence, that this fancy of theirs 
(which yet is of no small importance) is a truth : would 
he not be sharply reproved for it by the Romanists, as 
by those of Geneva ? But I must not forget, that be- 
sides St. Cyprian, St. Augustin, and Pope Innocent I. 
whose testimonies we have given in before, { all the rest 
of the Doctors, in a manner, of the first ages maintained, 
that the eucharist was necessary for young infants ; if 
at least you dare take Maldonat's word,§ who affirms, 
that this opinion was in great request in the Church, 
during the first six hundred years after our Saviour 
Christ. 

Cassander also testifies || that he has often observed 
this practice in the ancients j which is also attested by Ca~ 
rolus Magnus and Ludovicus Pius, w T ho lived a long time 
after the sixth century 3 both of whom assure us that 
this custom continued in the West, even in their time, 
as they are cited by cardinal Perron :% and the traces 
of this custom remain to this day among those Chris- 
tians who are not of the Communion of the Latin 

* T. 3. Cone. p. 547, in act. Cone. vii. act. 5. 

f Aug. t. 1, lib. 1, contr. Acad. c. 7, t. 2, ep. Ill, et ep. 115, et t. 
3, Enchir. ad. Laur. c. 59, de Trin. 1. 2, c. 7, et 1. 3, cap. 1, et 1. 8, 
cap. 2, et de Gen. ad lit. 1. 3, cap. 10, et 1. 11, cap. 22, et de divin. 
Dsem. cap. 3, 4, 5, et t. 4, 1. 93, quaest. 9, 47, t. 5, 1. 11, de Civ. 
Dei, cap. 25, etL 15, cap. 23, et ibi Vives, et. 1. 21, cap. 23, et cap. 
10. 

J Supr. 1. 1, c. 8. § Maldon. in Joh. 6, 53. 

|| Cassand. Consult, ad Fer. et Max. p. 936, et lib. de Bapt. Int. 
p. 747. 

•J Du. Perr. traict. de St. August, pag. 1001. 



276 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 

Church. For Nicolaus Lyranus, who lived above three 
hundred years since, observed, "That the Greeks ac- 
counted the holy eucharist so necessary, that they ad- 
ministered it to little children also, as well as baptism." * 
Even in our Fathers time, the Patriarch Jeremiah,+ 
speaking in the whole Greek Church, said, u We do not 
only baptize little children, but we make them partakers 
of the Lord's Supper." And a little after, u We account 
(says he) both sacraments to be necessary to salvation 
for all persons, namely, Baptism and the Holy Commu- 
nion." The Abyssinians also make their children in 
like manner communicate of the holy eucharist, as soon 
as they are baptised. J 

These are most evident arguments, that this false 
opinion on the necessity of the eucharist, has been of 
old maintained, not by three or four of the Fathers only, 
but by the major part, and in a degree by all of them. For 
we do not hear even of one among all the ancient Fa- 
thers, who rejected it in express terms, as the council 
of Trent has done, in these later times. 

To conclude, the Jesuit Pererius has informed us § (and 
indeed the observation is obvious enough to any man, 
who is ever so little conversant in the writings of those 
authors, who lived before St. Augustin's time) that all 
the Greek Fathers, and a considerable part also of the 
Latins, were of opinion that the cause of predestination 
was the foresight which God had, either of men's good 
works, or else of their faith ; either of which opinions, 
he assures us, is manifestly contrary both to the autho- 
rity of the Scriptures and also to the doctrine of St. 
Paul. Therefore I conceive we may, without troubling 
ourselves any further in making this invidious inquiry 
into the errors of the Fathers, conclude, from what has 
been already produced, that seeing the Fathers have erred 
in so many particulars, not only singly but also many of 

* Notandum quod ex hoc quod dieitur hie, nisi mandueaveritis, 
Scc.dicunt Gne-ci, quod Iioc sacra men turn est tantae necessitatis, quod 
puerifl debet dari, Bicul baptismos. — NicoL d<-. Lyra in Joh. 

\ Hierem. Patr. Const. Doctr. Kxh. ad Germ. 

X Alvarez, in his Voyage to Ethiopia. 

$ Perer. in Rom. c. 8, disp. 22, Ep. 23. 



IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 277 

them together,) neither the private opinion of each 
particular Father, nor yet the unanimous consent of the 
major part of them, is a sufficient argument to prove 
with certainty the truth of those points which are at 
this day controverted amongst us. 



S/'S CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 



CHAPTER V. 

REASON V. THAT THE FATHERS HAVE STRONGLY CON- 
TRADICTED ONE ANOTHER, AND HAVE MAINTAINED 
DIFFERENT OPINIONS IN MATTERS OF VERY GREAT 
IMPORTANCE. 

Bessarion, a Greek born, (who was honoured with the 
dignity of Cardinal by Pope Eugenius IV., as a reward of 
his earnest desire and the great pains he took in endea- 
vouring to effect a reconciliation between the Eastern 
and the Western Churches, in a book which he wrote 
upon this subject to the council of Florence,) will have 
the whole difference between the Greek and Latin 
Churches, to be brought before the judgment seat of the 
Fathers.* And forasmuch as he knew, that unless the 
judges did all agree, and were of one opinion, the cause 
(especially in matters of religion) necessarily remains 
undecided, he strongly labours to prove, that he has all 
the Fathers agreeing, not only with him, but (which is 
yet much harder to prove) that they are all of the same 
opinion likewise among themselves ; insomuch that he 
commands us, whenever there appears any contrariety 
in their writings, that we should accuse our own igno- 
rance, rather than blame them for contradicting each 
other. 

We may conclude therefore, from what is here laid 
down by this author, who was both as acute and as 
learned a man as any at this council, that to render the 
Fathers capable of being the judges of our controversies, 
it is necessary that they should be all of the same judg- 
ment and opinion in point of religion. And certainly 
this is a most clear truth ; for if there be any contra- 
diction amongst them, or dissension in opinion, they 

* Btissar. Orat. lltpttvmfft»g 9 c. 2, p. 520, ct 521, t. 4, Cone. 



IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 279 

will leave our controversies more perplexed than decided, 
and instead of uniting, will rather distract us, and rend 
us into many parts. That we may therefore be able to 
come to the knowledge of the truth in this particular, it 
will behove us first of all to examine whether that which 
Bessarion adds hereon, be true or not ; namely, that 
the opinions of the Fathers do never clash one with 
the other, on the points of our religion. 

Now, although this were so, would it not necessarily 
follow that their judgment must needs be therefore in- 
fallible ; forasmuch as even an error may, either by the 
consent of the several parties, or by accident, or by 
some other similar means, happen to meet with unani- 
mous accordance by various persons. 

But now in case this should prove to be false, then 
certainly we may make this infallible conclusion, that 
we ought to seek out for other judges of our controver- 
sies than the writings of the Fathers. We shall there- 
fore shew, by way of addition to the rest of our proofs, 
that this assertion of his is more bold than true ; and, 
that there are very many real differences to be found 
among the ancient Fathers in matters of religion. We 
have already noticed some of them incidentally, when 
speaking of other matters, and therefore we shall only 
lightly advert to them ; and first of all as to that dis- 
agreement in opinion of the most ancient among the 
Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, on one 
side ; and Dionysius Alexandrinus, Gregory Nazianzen, 
and St. Hierome, on the other : the first of these pro- 
mising us very seriously the delights and pleasures of 
a thousand years, and the diamonds and the sapphires 
of a new earthly Jerusalem, with all its glory and 
prosperity : but the other very coarsely, and in down- 
right terms reproving this their conceit, as being an idle 
fancy, fit to be entertained by little children and old 
women only ; and which seems to have been derived 
rather from the dreams of the Jews than from the 
doctrine of the Apostles. 

Similar to this was that difference between the bishops 
of Asia and Pope Victor, about the observation of 
Easter-day : and of Cyprian and Stephen, about the 
Baptism of Heretics : in all which differences the heat 



280 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

was so high, that it proceeded so far as to excommuni- 
cate each other. If Bessarion now could but make it 
appear to us, that these were not real but seeming 
contradictions only, I should then make no question 
but that he would as easily reconcile fire and water, or 
whatever things else in nature are the most contrary 
to one another. 

We have heard that Tertullian maintained, that the 
soul was ex traduce, and was propagated from the Fa- 
ther to the Son, by the natural course of generation ; 
and that St. Augustin likewise inclined to the same 
opinion; to whom, if we will believe St. Hierome, we 
must add a very considerable number of the Western 
Church also, who were all of the same persuasion.* But 
St Hierome rejects them all, and their opinion, f and 
says that the soul is created immediately by God, at the 
very instant that it is united to the body ; adding 
moreover (as we have formerly noticed) that this is the 
belief of the Church in this point. 

St. Hierome, and those of his faction, held that all 
that reprehension used by St. Paul to St. Peter, which 
we find mentioned in the epistle to the Galatians, was 
only a feigned business, purposely acted between the 
two Apostles, by an agreement made between them- 
selves. St. Augustin, with those of his side, maintains 
the contrary, and says that the thing was real, and was 
meant heartily and seriously, and as it is related by St. 
Paul ; and that there was no cunning or underhand 
dealing in the business, or any scene laid between 
St. Peter and him. And St. Hierome pursued this dis- 
pute with so much heat and earnestness, that besides 
those epistles of his, which are full of gall and choler, 
written against St. Augustin, on this particular, he yet, 
in his Commentaries, J which were pieces he wrote in 
his quieter temper, many times takes occasion to point 
underhand at St. Augustin, upon this old quarrel be- 
tween them. So that certainly he must be quite out 
of his wits, whoever shall seriously maintain, that these 

• An certe ex traduce, ut Tertullianus, Apollinarius, et maxima 
pars occidental! um autumant. — Micron. /•,/>. B2. /. 2. 

t Id. Com. in Kcclcs. C. 12, t. p. et Ep. 61, ad Pamm. t. 2, 5, 
242. et afibi passim. 

J Vid. Com. 14, in Es. t. 4, p 378, et Com. 18, in eund p. 485. 






IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 281 

two Fathers were perfectly of one opinion, and agreed 
upon his point. Justin Martyr is of opinion that it 
was the real ghost of Samuel that appeared to Saul ; 
Tqv 'StafjLovrjX "^vyjjv KXrjOrjvaL vtto ttjq iyyaorptfjivdov 3* 
being raised up by the enchantments of the witch at 
Endor. Others say it was but a fantasm : Tov deov rov 
BedojKOTOg r(p Saifiovi, iv to) a^rffxari rov Ha/uovrj\ 6(j)0r)vai 
rrj eyyaffrpifxvdcD.f Some of them hold that the meeting 
together of the faithful at the eucharist thrice a week, 
is an apostolical tradition : J others believe the contrary. § 
Some enjoin us to fast on Saturdays ;|| others forbid 
the same, under the penalty of being accounted no less 
than the murderers of Christ.^" Some of them conceive 
that our Saviour Christ suffered death in the fortieth 
or fiftieth year of his age.** Others again would per- 
suade us, that he died in the thirtieth or thirty-first 
year of his age :ft both which opinions are manifestly 
contrary to the text of the Gospel, which tells us clearly 
that after his baptism, that is to say, after the thirtieth 
year of his age, he conversed above three, and under 
five years, upon the earth. Some of them (as we are 
informed by these Latinized Greeks X J) allow of these 
terms, cause and effect, in the doctrine of the Trinity ; 
but some others again do not so. Some of them are of 
opinion, that there is a certain order or distinction of 
priority in the persons of the Trinity. Others again 
there are, who will not endure to hear of this expression. 
Those of the Western Church call the Son only, The 
Image of the Father ; but the Greek Church makes 
this name extend to the Holy Ghost also. St. Basil 
will not allow of the word yvvv^fxa, in discoursing of the 
Son. Others again make use of it without any scruple 
at all. 

* Justin, cont. Tryph. p. 333. 

t Pseudo. Just. 1. Q. et R. Resp. ad q. 52. 

% Epiphan. Panar. Expos, fid. p. 1104. 

§ August, in Ep. 118, ad Jan. t. 3, vid. Petav. in Epiph. p. 354. 

II Vid. Petav. p. 359, in Epiph. Eccl. Rom. ap. Socr. 1. 5, c. 22, 
August. Ep. 86, et 118. Innov. 1. Ep. I.e. 4. 

^ Ignat. Ep. 4, ad Philip. Can. Apost. c. 68, Constit. Apost. 1. 7, 
c 24, Syn. Trull, can. 55. 

** Iren. 1. 2, c. 39. 

tf Tertull. Clem. Alex. Lactant. Afric. ubi supr. 

XX Scholarius, Orat. 3, t. 4, Concil. Gen. p. 658, 659. . 



282 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

I doubt very much whether Bessarion had ever seen 
the Apologies and Invectives of St. Hierome and of 
Ruffinus, who were yet both of them Fathers, and of good 
repute too in the Church, both of their own time and 
of the ages following ; although they were not both of 
them of equal esteem. Neither do I believe he remem- 
bered the quarrel there was between Theophilus and 
Epiphanius on the one part, and St. Chrysostom on the 
other. For certainly their conduct towards each other, 
in this their debate, does not shew them to have been 
such very good friends, and so well agreed upon the 
point debated. But now to overthrow this bold asser- 
tion of his at once, we need go no further than to the 
very point on which he proposed it. For whom will he 
ever be able to persuade that all the Fathers have written 
and said the very same things on the Procession of the 
Holy Ghost ? It is evident that sometimes they will 
have it to proceed from the Son also, as St. Basil by 
name has expressed himself, in that passage of his which 
is alleged by the Latins, out of his book against Euno- 
mius (which production however the Greeks say is 
forged), and as the Fathers of the Western Church 
have most expressly declared themselves in many places. 
But yet I cannot possibly see how we can say that they 
have all been of this opinion. 

I shall not here interfere with those other authorities 
produced by the Greeks out of the Fathers ; which their 
adversaries put by as well as they can ; oftentimes most 
miserably wresting, and stretching upon the rack, the 
words and meaning of the Fathers. But that passage 
of Theodoret, in his refutation of St. Cyril's Anathemas, 
is so clear and express, that nothing can be more so. 

St. Cyril had said, in his 9th Anathema, that the Holy 
Ghost proceeds properly from the Son : 'lSiov clvtov 
(Xptarov) to TrvEVjia.* Theodoret answers, that it is both 
impious and blasphemous to say that the Holy Ghost 
has its subsistence from the Son, or by the Son. " If 
he means (says he) that the Holy Ghost proceeds pro- 
perly from the Son, as being of the same nature with 

* Con. Flor. Act. 20, t. 4, Cone. p. 543. 
f Cyril. Anath. 9. 






IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 283 



it, and as proceeding from the Father, we shall willingly 
agree with him, and receive his doctrine as sound and 
pious : but if he mean that the Holy Ghost has its sub- 
stance from the Son, or by the Son, we must then re- 
ject it as impious and blasphemous :" — IcW Se to 

TTVEVfJLa TOV VLOV, EL /JLEV WQ 6/JLO(pV£Q 9 /CCU EK WaTpOQ EVTTOpEVO- 

\xevov E(prf f crvvofioXoyrjCTOfjiEyj Kai wg evg£(3t] SE^iojJiEda tyjv 

(pWVqV EL ft U)Q t£ VLOV, 7] Sl VLOV TY]V VTTCLO^LV EyOV , WQ j3\a<J- 

iprj/jov tovto, mi ibg SvarepEg aTToppL\bii)ji£v,* 

He could not have thrown by this proposition of St. \ 
Cyril more bluntly, or in coarser terms ; and yet for all 
this, so directly giving him the lie, as it were, and his 
insolent rejecting of an opinion that was then received 
by the Church, as the Latins pretend, St. Cyril replies 
no more than this : " That the Holy Ghost, although 
it proceed from the Father, yet nevertheless is not a 
stranger to the Son ; since he has all things common 
with the Father !" — 'E/CTroocvsrcu jjlev yap £k tov Oeov kcli 
Trarpoc to 7rv£vfxa to ayiov, Kara ti\v tov 2ii*)Tr)pog (JHorrjv, 
aXV ovk aXKoTpLov ecttl tov vlov iravTa yap iyti fiETa tov 
7raTpog.f 

Why did he not cry out against him as a heretic, 
as he many times elsewhere does, with much less reason ; ^ 
if at least you must have it granted you that the opinion 
of the Church at that time was, that the Holy Ghost 
proceeded from the Son ? Why did he not take it very 
ill at his hands, that he should in so insolent a manner 
reject, as impious and blasphemous, a proposition that 
was so holy and so true ? Why did he not call the 
whole Church in, to be his warrant for what he had 
said, if it had really been the general belief of the 
Church at that time ? And how comes it to pass that, 
instead of all this, he rather returns so tame an answer, 
that it seems rather to betray his own cause, and also 
rather to incline to the contrary opinion of his adver- 
sary's ? For it is evident that neither Theodoret, nor 
yet any of the modern Greeks, ever held that the Holy 
Ghost was a stranger to, or was unconcerned in, the 
Son : seeing that they all confess that these three, to 

* Theodor. Refut. Anath. 9, Cyril. Act. Cone. Eph, 
f Cyril. Resp. ad|Ref. Theod. Anath. 9. ibid. 






284 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

wit, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are one 
and the same God, who is blessed for ever. 

Whosoever shall but diligently consider these things, 
(for we cannot stand any longer upon the examination 
of them,) he cannot, in my judgment, but confess that 
the Church had not as yet declared itself, or determined 
any thing on this point ; and that these Doctors spake 
herein each man his own private opinion only, and ac- 
cording as the present occasion of disputation led him 
to speak ; where you shall have them contradicting one 
another, in the manner usual in speaking of things not 
as yet thoroughly examined, or expressly determined : 
insomuch that it would grieve a man to see how the 
Greeks and the Latins toil to no purpose, each of them 
labouring to bring over the Fathers to speak to their 
side, and fearfully wresting their words, whenever they 
seem to be but ever so little ambiguous ; and repeatedly 
accusing one another of having corrupted the writings 
of the ancients, whenever they are found to speak ex- 
pressly against them : and when all is done, leaving 
those who either read or hear them without any preju- 
dice, very much dissatisfied ; whereas it had been much 
easier to have honestly confessed at first, that which is 
but too apparent, that the Fathers, as in this, so in many 
other points of religion, have not all been of one and 
the same persuasion. And whereas Bessarion, that he 
may elude this testimony of Theodoret, affirms that he 
was cast forth of the Church, for having denied that 
the Holy Ghost proceeded from the son ;'* and that he 
afterwards publicly confessed his error at the council of 
Chalcedon, where he was received into the Church again ; 
all this, I say, is only a piece of Grecian assurance ; 
which shews more clearly than all the rest how much 
this man was carried away with his feelings, and the 
violence of his regard for the Latin Church. For, I be- 
seech you, in what ancient author had he ever read, 
that Theodoret was, I do not say condemned or excom- 
municated, but so much as reproved, or accused only, 
for having maintained any erroneous opinion on the 

* Bessar. in Orat. Dogmat. sive de Unione Extra, cap. 9, in Act. 
('one. Flor. Sess. 28, t. 4, Cone. }>. 551. 



IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 235 

procession of the Holy Ghost? We have the acts of the 
Council of Ephesus, where he was excommunicated. We 
have the letters of St. Cyril, wherein he again received into 
the communion of the Church John patriarch of Antioch, 
and all his followers, of which number Theodoret was the 
chief. We have the council of Chalcedon ; where Theodoret, 
after some certain accusations of his adversaries against 
him, was at length received by the whole assembly as a 
Catholic bishop, and was admitted to sit amongst them. 
In which of all these authentic pieces is there so much 
as one word spoken on this opinion of his, concerning 
the point of the proceeding of the Holy Ghost ? St. 
Cyril himself, that is to say, those of his party, did not 
at all condemn what he said on this particular -, but he 
rather contented himself with excusing, or, if you please, 
in defending only his own opinion. The business for 
which Theodoret was questioned in the councils of 
Ephesus and of Chalcedon, had nothing in the world 
to do with this, touching the procession of the Holy 
Ghost : for the question was only there on the two 
natures of our Saviour Christ, whom Nestorius would 
needs divide into two persons ; John patriarch of An- 
tioch, Theodoret, and divers other Eastern bishops, fa- 
vouring in some sort his person, or being indeed offended 
rather at the proceeding of the council of Ephesus 
against him -, and withal rejecting several things that 
were contained in the Anathemas of St. Cyril. 

Now with what confidence could this man tell us, 
after all this, that Theodoret had been deposed from 
his bishopric for having maintained an erroneous opinion 
on the procession of the Holy Ghost ? But enough of 
this. 

I would, in the next place, wish to know how this re- 
conciler of differences could compose that debate be- 
tween the 630 Fathers of the council at Chalcedon, and 
Leo bishop of Rome ; and how he can reconcile the 
28th canon of the one, w T ith those many epistles written 
by the other on this point, to Anatolius patriarch of 
Constantinople, to the emperor Marcianus and his em- 
press, to the prelates who were there met together in 
that council, and to the patriarch of Antioch : the Fa- 
thers of this council advancing the throne of the patri- 






2S6 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

arch of Constantinople above those of Alexandria and 
of Antioch, and making it equal even with that of Rome 
itself: Pope Leo in the meantime sending out his thun- 
derbolts against this decree of theirs, and charging them 
as guilty of a most insufferable injury offered him. And 
when this our conciliator shall have done his business 
at Chalcedon, if he please he may pass over into Africa, 
and there also reconcile the Fathers of that country to 
the bishops of Rome ; the former of these forbidding 
their clergy to make any appeals to Rome, and the other 
in the meantime to their utmost endeavouring to prove, 
that it is their proper right to have such appeals brought 
before them. And when he has finished this work, our 
Greek may then in the next place try to remove all 
misunderstanding between the Fathers of the Council 
of Francfort, and those of the second council of Nice, on 
the point of the use of images ; the latter of these or- 
daining, " That we ought to pay unto them salutations 
and adoration of honour ; and that we ought to honour 
them with incense and lights :" — (Kcu ravraig cKriraaiiov 

KM TLfJLTJTlKrjV 7TpO(JlCVVr)(JlV aiTOVE^LeiV Km OvjAiafJClTli) 

Kai (f)WTU)v TTpocraywyriv irpoc rr\v tovtwv tijjlijv Troieicrdai*) 
and the other, as every man knows, having not onl 
rejected this Greek Council, but having written also 
expressly against it, by the command of the empero 
Carolus Magnus. 

Certainly he that shall but read the Fathers them- 
selves will readily perceive that they clash with anc 
contradict each other in most plain and irreconcilable 
terms ; and that there is no other way of bringing ther 
fairly together, but by receiving every one of them witt 
his own private opinions ; imitating herein the marvel- 
lous wisdom of the council of Constantinople in Trullo ;1 
which receives and allows all in gross without distinction, 
both the canons of the Apostles, and the whole code of 
the Church Universal, together with those of Sardica, 
Carthage, and Laodicea ; amongst which notwithstand- 
ing there are found strong contradictions. As, for ex- 
ample, the council of Sardica will have the right of 

* Cone. 7, Act. 7, in difin. t. 3, Cone. p. 661, 662. 
t Synod. Quinisexta Can. 2, t. 3, Con. 






IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 2S7 

receiving the appeals of all bishops to belong to the see 
of Rome,* whereas Chalcedon gives this privilege to 
that of Constantinople. f The council of Laodicea leaves 
out of the canon of the Scriptures the Maccabees, Ec- 
clesiasticus, the book of wisdom, Tobit, and Judith : J 
that of Carthage puts them in expressly. § But now 
these honest Fathers of Constantinople, that they may 
satisfy all the world, take no notice whatever of these 
their differences 5 but receive each of them with their 
own particular canons and opinions, without obliging 
them to any one common rule 5 doing this, I believe, on 
condition that they themselves may not be required by 
those whom they thus admit to receive any more from 
them than they shall think convenient. I know no 
man that would not at this rate readily admit of, as 
canon, all the writings of the Fathers ; provided that 
he might but have liberty to take or leave therein what 
he thought good. Thus we may very well from hence- 
forth rest satisfied, that, notwithstanding Bessarion's 
resolution to the contrary, the Fathers have not always 
been of the same judgment in matters of religion : and 
that consequently they ought not to be received by us 
as our judges on the matter. For seeing that I find 
them contradicting each other in so many various points 
of very great importance, how shall I be assured that 
they are all unanimously agreed on those points 
which are now debated amongst us ? Why may they not 
have had the same diversity of opinion on the eucharist, 
the authority of the Church, the power of the Pope, 
freewill or purgatory, that they had in those other 
points which we have before presented to the reader's 
view ; which were of as great importance as these, and 
no less easy to be determined, as we have proved in the 
preceding chapter ? 

Epiphanius and St. Hierome are as opposite in their 
judgments, on the ancient condition of priests and 
bishops, as Theodoret and St. Cyril are, on the pro- 
cession of the Holy Ghost. Neither are some opinions 

* Synod. Sard. Can. 3 et 7. 
f Synod. Chalced. c. 9 et 17. 
X Synod. Laod. Can. 59. § Synod. Carthag. 3, c. 47. 



288 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 

of Tertullian and of Damascene, of Theodoret and 
Eusebius Emisenus; of Eusebius Csesarensis and of 
the seventh council, on the point of the eucharist, less 
opposite to each other, than are those of Cyprian and 
of Stephen on the baptism of heretics ; and so likewise 
in many other particulars. Why then should we take 
so much pains and trouble ourselves to no purpose, 
in reconciling these men, and making them speak all the 
same thing ? Why should we so cruelly and so un- 
courteously rack them as we do, to make them all of one 
opinion, and to say the same things, whether they will 
or no • and sometimes too against our own conscience ; 
but certainly, for the most part, without any satisfaction 
to the reader ? Why should we not rather honestly 
confess that their opinions were also different, as well 
as their words ? 

We make no scruple in affirming that they have been 
of contrary opinions, on those other points of religion, 
which are not at all now controverted amongst us. How 
much greater harm for heaven's sake would it be, if we 
should confess that they have not any better agreed 
among themselves, on these points now in debate? 
But we need not press this matter any further : it is 
sufficient for us that we have proved that they were 
of different opinions in point of religion ; so that it 
clearly follows from hence, that we ought not to admit 
of their writings, as the proper judges of our contro- 
versies. 

I have heretofore adverted, though very lightly, to 
their diversity of opinion and contrariety in their expo- 
sitions upon the Scriptures ; which is, however, a busi- 
ness of no trifling consideration. For if we take them 
for our judges, we shall then necessarily have occasion 
every minute of having recourse to them, on the sense 
of those passages of Scripture on which we disagree 
among ourselves. If there be now as great contra- 
rieties and difference in judgment on these things 
among them as there is amongst ourselves, what have 
we then left us to trust to ? This passage, for example, 
in the gospel according to St. John, " I and my Father 
are One/* is of very great importance in the disputes 
* Ego ct Pater ununi sumus. — Ioh* x. 30. 



IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 2S9 

against both Sabellius and Arius. Would you now 
know the true sense and meaning of these words, lest 
otherwise, by misinterpreting the same, you might 
chance to fall into the one or the other of these two 
precipices ? If you have recourse to the Fathers in this 
case, you shall have some of them referring it to the 
union of the affection and of the will,* and others 
again, to the unity of essence and of nature. f 

So likewise this other passage in the same Evangelist ; 
u My Father is greater than I, "J is very considerable 
also in the question on the divinity of Jesus Christ : 
and yet there are some among the Fathers§ who under- 
stand the words as spoken indefinitely of the Son of 
God, although the rest of them do ordinarily restrain 
them to his humanity. These words also of St. John, i &n.( 
" The word was made flesh," || are of no small conside- 
ration in the disputes against Nestorius and Eutyches. 
Now if you bring the business before the Fathers, you 
shall have some of them expounding these words,^f by 
comparing them with those passages in St. Paul, where 
it is said that Christ was made sin** and a curse for 
us :ft but St. Cyril says, that we must take heed how we 
thus interpret the words. J J 

It would be an endless task if I should here attempt 
to enumerate all the differences and contrarieties of 
judgment to be found in the Fathers. Those who have 
a mind to see any more of them may have recourse to 
some of our late commentators, whose usual course is, 
to bring in all together the several interpretations of 
the Fathers upon those books which they comment 
upon : as Maldonate has done upon the gospels ; Car- 
dinal Tolet upon St. John ; Bened. Justinianus, upon the 

* Ununi nonpertinet ad singularitatem, sed ad unitatem, ad simi- 
litudinem, ad conjunctionem, ad delectionem Patris, qui Filium di- 
ligit, et ad obsequium Filii, qui voluntati Patris obsequitur. — TertuL 
contr. Prax. c. 22. — Autor libri de Trin. c. 22. Grig, contr. Celsu/n, 
lib. 8, p. 393. 

f Athanas. Greg. Nazianz. alii pene omnes passim. 

\ Iohniv. 28. § Epiphan. Ancor p. 23. || Ioh. i. 14. 

\ Ambros. 1. de Incar. Sacr. c. 6. t. 2. p. 183. Athan. Ep. ad Epict. 
t. 1. p. 587, &t. 2. p. 298. 

** 2 Cor. v. 21. +t Gal. iii. 13. 

\\ Cyril. Apol. Athan. 1. t. 1. Cone. Gener. p. 515. 

O 



290 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS. 

epistles of St. Paul, and others : where they will find 
that there is scarcely any one verse that the ancients 
have understood all of them after one and the same 
manner. What is yet worse than this, besides this 
contrariety and difference of interpretation, you will 
often meet with many frigid and vapid expositions : and 
it is very seldom that you shall find there that solid 
simplicity which we ought to expect from all those 
who take upon them the interpretation of the Holy 
Scriptures. 

Thus, therefore, as we often meet with contrariety of 
judgment, as well in their expositions of the Scriptures 
as in their opinions, we may safely conclude that they 
are not of sufficient authority to be admitted as the 
supreme judges of our controversies : that contradic- 
tion which is often found amongst them, evidently 
shewing that they are not infallible judges, such as it is 
requisite that they should be, for establishing all those 
points which are at this day maintained by the Church 
of Rome against the Protestants. 



291 



CHAPTER VI. 

REASON VI. — THAT NEITHER THOSE OF THE CHURCH 
OF ROME NOR THE PROTESTANTS ACKNOWLEDGE THE 
FATHERS FOR THEIR JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION 3 
BOTH OF THEM REJECTING SUCH OF THEIR OPINIONS 
AND PRACTICES AS ARE NOT SUITED TO THEIR TASTE 3 
BEING AN ANSWER TO TWO OBJECTIONS THAT MAY 
BE MADE AGAINST WHAT IS DELIVERED IN THIS 
DISCOURSE. 

Thus far have we laboured to prove that the writings of 
the Fathers have not authority enough in themselves to 
be received as definitive judgments upon our differences in 
religion. Let us now, in the last place, see how much 
regard they ought to have in this respect. For although 
a sentence of judgment should be good and valid in 
itself, as being pronounced by one who is a competent 
and lawful judge, duly and according to the forms of 
law ; yet notwithstanding this would not serve to deter- 
mine the controversy, if the authority of this judge be 
denied by either of the parties, (unless, as it is in 
worldly affairs, the law be armed with such a power, as 
to be able to force those who are obstinate to submit to 
reason) : forasmuch as the question is here concerning 
religion, which is a holy and divine thing, to the em- 
bracing whereof men ought to be persuaded and not 
compelled, since force hath no place here. For al- 
though, perhaps, they could compel men outwardly to 
render some such respect to the writings of the Fathers, 
yet notwithstanding this would not serve to make any 
impression of the belief of the same in the heart of any 
one. The same divisions would still remain in the 
minds of men, which you are first of all to pluck up by 
the roots, if ever you intend to reconcile them to each 

o 2 



292 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

other, and to make them agree in points of religion. 
For the certain determination therefore of all differ- 
ences of this nature, it is necessary that both parties 
be persuaded that the judge who is to pronounce sen- 
tence upon the same, has as much authority as is requi- 
site for that purpose. Notwithstanding therefore that 
the Fathers should have clearly and positively pro- 
nounced what they had thought on the point in hand, 
(which yet they have not done, as we have proved be- 
fore,) let us suppose further, that they had been 
endued with all those qualities which are requisite for 
rendering a man fit to be a supreme judge, and from 
whom there can be no appeal, (which yet is not so, as 
we have already clearly proved), yet notwithstanding 
all this would be to no purpose, unless this authority 
were acknowledged by both parties. 

The Old Testament is a book which was written by 
divine inspiration, and is endued with so supreme an 
authority, that every part of it ought to be believed. 
Yet this has not any influence with a Pagan ; because he 
does not acknowledge any such excellent worth to be in 
it. In like manner is it between the New Testament 
and the Jew : neither can it decide the differences be- 
tween the Jews and us ; not because it is not of suffi- 
cient authority in itself, but because it is not so to the 
Jew. And indeed he who should adduce, in disputing 
against the Pagans, the authority of the Old Testament, 
or that of the New, for bringing over a Jew to our be- 
lief, would be worthy of ridicule. 

Suppose therefore, that thfe writings of the Fathers 
were clear upon our questions : nay, which is more, let 
it be granted moreover (if you please) that they were 
written by divine inspiration, and are of themselves of 
a full and undeniable authority : I say still that they 
cannot decide our debates, if either of the parties shall 
refuse to acknowledge this great and admirable dignity 
to be in them ; much less if both parties shall refuse to 
allow them to have this advantage. Let us therefore 
Bee, in what account the several parties hold the Fathers, 
and whether they acknowledge them as the supreme 
judges of their religion ; or at least as arbitrators, whose 
definitive judgment ought to stand firm and inviolable. 



- IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 293 

As for the Protestants of France, whom their adver- 
saries would fain persuade, if they could, to receive the 
Fathers for judges in religion ; and to whom conse- 
quently they ought not, according to the laws of legiti- 
mate controversy, to adduce for the proof of any point 
in debate, any other principles than what they admit : 
it is evident that they attribute to the Fathers nothing 
less than such an authority. For in their Confession of 
Faith * they declare, in the very beginning of it, that 
they hold the Scriptures to be the rule of their faith : 
and as for all other ecclesiastical writings, although they 
consider them useful, yet nevertheless do they not con- 
ceive that a man may safely build any article of faith 
upon them. And indeed, seeing that they believe (as 
they tell you immediately afterwards), that the Scrip- 
ture contains all things necessary, both for the service 
of God, and the salvation of men's souls, they have no 
need of any other judge, and should in vain have recourse 
to the writings of the ancients 5 the authority whereof, 
how great soever it be, is still much less, both in itself 
and also in respect of us, than that of the Bible. 

In the next place, they seriously profess that their in- 
tent is to reform the Christian doctrine according to this 
rule j and to retain firmly whatever articles of faith are 
therein delivered 3 and to reject constantly all the 
that are not there found laid down, however hicrh and 
eminent the authority be, that shall rescind the one or 
estabish the other in the belief of men : " It is not law- 
ful ( say they) for men, nor yet for the angels themselves, 
either to add to, or diminish from, or to alter it 5 neither 
may antiquity, nor customs, nor multitude, nor judg- 
ments, nor human wisdom, nor definitive sentences, nor 
edicts, nor decrees, nor councils, nor visions, nor mira- 
cles, be brought in opposition to it : but on the contrary 
rather, all other things ought to be examined, regulated, 
and reformed by it." These are their own words. If there- 
fore they will not depart from this their belief, which is. as it 
were, the foundation and key of their whole reformation ; 
they cannot receive the Fathers who lived in the second, 
third, and fourth, and so in the following centuries, as 

* Confesi. de Foi desEglis. Res.de Fran. Art. 4. 



<294 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

judges, nor yet absolutely and simply as witnesses, in 
the points of faith. For they all hold that that pure, 
simple, and holy doctrine which was taught and preached 
by the Apostles at the beginning of Christianity, and 
delivered over to us by themselves in the New Testa- 
ment, has been by little and little altered and corrupted; 
time, which changes all things, continually mixing among 
it some corruption or other : sometimes a Jewish or a 
Heathenish opinion, and sometimes again some peculiar 
observation ; other times some superstitious ceremony 
or other ; whilst one building upon the foundation with 
stubble, another with hay, a third with wood ; the body 
seems at length by little and little to have become quite 
different from what it anciently was ; we having, 
instead of a palace of gold and of silver, a house built 
of plaster, stone, wood and mud, and the like poor ma- 
terials. In like manner (say they) as we see that 
brooks of water, the farther distant they are from their 
springs, the more filth they contract, and the more does 
their water lose its first purity. As a man, the more 
he grows in years, the more does that native simplicity 
which appeared in him in his infancy decay ; his body 
and his mind are changed, and he is so much altered by 
little and little, through study and art, that at length he 
seems to be entirely another man. In like manner (say 
they) has it fared with Christianity. And here they 
urge that notable passage out of St. Paul, in his second 
epistle to the Thessalonians, where he speaks of a great 
falling away : which then in his time began already to 
work secretly and insensibly, but was not to break forth 
till a long time after ; as you see it is in all great things, 
whether in nature, or in the affairs and occurrences that 
happen to mankind, which are all conceived and hatched 
slowly, and by degrees, and are sometimes a whole age 
before they are brought forth. 

Now according to this hypothesis, which, as I con- 
ceive, is equally common to us in France and all other 
Protestants whatever, the doctrine of the Church must 
necessarily have suffered some alteration in the second 
age of Christianity, by admitting the mixture of some 
new matter into its belief and policy : and so likewise 
in the third age some other corruption must necessarily 






JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 299 

have crept in : and so in the fourth, fifth, and the rest 
that follow 5 the Christian religion continually losing 
something of its original purity and simplicity j and on 
the other side still contracting all along some new im- 
purities, till at length it came to the highest degree of 
corruption : in which condition, they say, they found it ; 
and have now at last, by the guidance of the Scriptures, 
restored it to the self-same state wherein it was at the 
beginning ; and have, as it were, fixed it again upon its- 
true and proper hinge, from whence, partly by the ig- 
norance and partly by the fraud of men, during the 
space of bo many ages together, it had by little and lit- 
tle been removed. This therefore being their opinion, 
they cannot admit of, as the rule of all their doctrine, 
the writings of any of the Fathers who lived from the 
Apostles' time down to ours, without betraying and 
contradicting themselves. For according to what they 
maintain, on the progress of corruption in religion, 
there has been some alteration in the Christian doc- 
trine, both in the second, third, and all following ages. 
And then again, according to what they conceive and 
believe of their own reformation, their doctrine is the 
very same that was in the time of the Apostles, as being 
taken immediately out of their books. If therefore they 
should examine it by what the Fathers of the second 
century believed, there must necessarily be something 
found in the doctrine of the Fathers which is not in 
theirs : and the difference will be much greater, if the 
comparison be made between it and the doctrine of the 
third, fourth, and the following ages \ in all which, ac- 
cording to their hypothesis, the corruption has conti- 
nually increased. For if their doctrines were in every 
respect conformable to each other, and had in them 
neither more nor less the one than the other, there must 
necessarily then follow one of these two things ; namely, 
that either this corruption, which they presuppo- 
be in the belief and polity of the Church, is not that 
secret which worked in St, Paul's time \ or else, that 
their reformation is not the pure and simple doctrine of 
the Apostles : the members of which division are con- 
tradictory to those two positions, which, as we have 
said, they all of them unanimously maintain. Therefore, 



296 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

to avoid this contradiction, it concerns them constantly 
to persevere in that which they profess is their belief, 
in their confession of faith : to wit, that there are no 
ecclesiastical writings whatsoever, that are of such suffi- 
cient authority as safely to be built upon, and made 
the judges of faith ; and that the Holy Scripture 
is the only rule by which all these things are to be ex- 
amined. And this is that which they all agree upon (as 
far as I have either read or known), as any one may 
see, in the books of Calvin, Bucer, Melancthon, Luther, 
Beza. and the rest ; who all rely upon the authority of 
the Scriptures only ; and admit not of any part of 
the authority of the Fathers, as a sufficient ground 
whereon to build any article of their belief. 

It is true, I confess, that some of their first authors, 
as Bucer, Peter Martyr, and J. Jewell of Salisbury, and 
in a manner all the later writers, also allege the testi- 
monies of the Fathers ; but (if you but mark it) it is 
only by way of confutation, and not of establishing any- 
thing : they do it only to overthrow the opinions of the 
Church of Rome, and not to strengthen their own. For 
though they hold that the doctrine of the Fathers is not 
so pure as that of the Apostles ; yet do they withal be- 
lieve that it is much purer than that which is at this 
day taught by the Church of Rome -, the purity of doc- 
trine having continually decayed, and the impurity of it 
increased to such a degree, that the further they are re- 
moved from the time of the Apostles, the nearer they 
approach (as they say) towards the afore-mentioned 
falling away spoken of by St. Paul. 

Although the Protestants allow the Scriptures only 
for the true foundation of their faith, yet notwithstand- 
ing they account the writings of the Fathers to be ne- 
cessary also, and of good use j first of all in proving this 
decay which they say has happened in Christianity -, and 
secondly, for making it appear that the opinions which 
their adversaries now maintain were not in those days 
brought into any form, but were as yet only in embryo. 
As for example, transubstantiation was not as yet an 
article of faith ; notwithstanding they long ago did in- 
nocently, and not foreseeing what the issue might prove 
to be, believe certain things, out of which (being alter- 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. l 297 

wards glossed over by passing through several languages) 
transubstantiation was at length concocted. So like- 
wise the supremacy of the Pope had at that time no 
place in the belief of men : although those small threads 
and root-strings, from whence this vast and wonderful 
power first sprang, long since appeared in the world. 

The like may be said of the greatest part of these 
other points, which the Protestants will not by any 
means receive. And that this is their resolution and 
sense, appears evidently by those many books which 
they have written on this subject, wherein they shew 
historically the whole progress of this decay in Christi- 
anity, as well in its faith as in its polity and discipline. 
And truly this their design seems to be very sufficient 
and satisfactory. For, seeing that they propose nothing 
positively, and as an article of faith necessary to salva- 
tion, which may not easily and plainly be proved out of 
the Scripture 5 they have no need to make use of any 
other principle for the demonstration of the truth. 

Furthermore, seeing that those positive articles of 
faith which they believe are in a manner all of them 
received and confessed by the Church of Rome, as we 
have said before in the preface to this treatise, there is 
no need of troubling a man's self to prove the same ; 
those things which both parties are agreed upon, being 
never to be proved, but are always presupposed in all 
disputations. Yet notwithstanding, if any one has a 
wish to be informed what the belief of the Fathers has 
been on the said articles, it is an easy matter for them 
to make it appear that they also believed all of them, 
as well as themselves ; as for example, that there is a 
God, a Christ, a salvation, a sacrament of baptism, a 
sacrament of the Eucharist, and the like truths ; the 
greatest part of which we have formerly set down in the 
beginning of this discourse. 

And as for those other articles, which are proposed 
to the world, besides all these by the Church of Rome, 
it is sufficient for them that they are able to answer the 
arguments which are brought to prove them, and to 
make it by this means appear that they have not any 
sure ground at all, and consequently neither may nor 
ought to be received into the faith of Christians. And 

o 5 



298 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

this is the use that the Protestants make of the Fathers ; 
evidently making it appear to the world (out of them) 
that they did not hold the said articles, as the Church 
of Rome does at this day. So that their alleging the 
Fathers to this purpose only, and indeed their whole 
practice in these disputes, declare evidently enough, that 
they conceive not the belief of the Church of Rome to 
be so perfectly and exactly conformable to that of anti- 
quity ; especially of the four or five first ages ; which 
accords very well with their hypothesis, regarding the 
corruption of the Christian doctrine. Yet no one can 
conclude from hence, that they do allow of the authority 
of the Fathers as a sufficient foundation to ground any 
article of faith upon 3 for this is repugnant both to their 
doctrine, and to the protestation which they on all oc- 
casions make expressly to the contrary. I cannot there- 
fore but wonder at the proceeding of some of our mo- 
dern authors, who in their disputations with the Protes- 
tants endeavour to prove the articles of their faith by 
testimonies brought out of the Fathers ; whereas the 
Protestants never go about to make good their own 
opinions, but only to overthrow those of their adversa- 
ries, by urging the Fathers' testimonies. For seeing 
that the members of the Church of Rome maintain, 
that the Church neither has, nor can possibly err in 
points of faith, and that its belief in matters of faith 
has always been the same that it is at this day ; it is 
sufficient for the Protestant to shew, by comparing 
the doctrine of the ancient Fathers with that of the 
Church of Rome, that there is great difference between 
them : neither does this in any wise bind them to believe 
throughout whatsoever the Fathers believed ; it being 
evident, according to their hypothesis, that some errors 
may have crept into their belief; though certainly not 
such, nor so gross, as have been since entertained 
by the Church in the ages succeeding. We shall con- 
clude therefore that the Protestants acknowledge not, 
either in the Fathers or in their writings, any such 
absolute authority, as renders them capable of being re- 
ceived by us as our supreme judges^ in matters of re- 
ligion, and such as from whom no appeal can be made. 
Whence it will follow, that although the Fathers might 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 299 

really perhaps have such an authority 5 yet notwith- 
standing could not their definitive sentence put an end 
to any of our controversies; and therefore it concerns the 
Church of Rome to have recourse to some other way 
of proof, if she intends to prevail upon her adversaries 
to receive the aforesaid articles. 

What will you say now, if we make it appear to you 
that the Church of Rome itself does not allow that the 
Fathers have any such authority ? I suppose that if we 
are able to do this, there is no man so perverse as not 
to confess that this proceeding of theirs,, in grounding 
their articles of faith upon the sayings of the Fathers, 
is not only very insufficient, but very inconvenient also. 
For how can it ever be endured, that a man who would 
persuade you to the belief of anything, should for that 
purpose make use of the testimony of some such per- 
sons as neither you nor himself believe to be infallibly 
true, and so fit to be trusted ? Let us now therefore 
see whether those of the Church of Rome really have 
themselves so great an esteem for the Fathers, as they 
would be thought to have by this their proceeding, or 
not. 

Certainly several of the learned of that party have 
upon divers occasions let us see plain enough, that 
they make no more account of them than the Protes- 
tants do. For whereas these require that the authority 
of the Fathers be grounded upon that of the Scripture ; 
and therefore receive nothing that they deliver as infal- 
libly true, unless it be grounded upon the Scripture, 
passing by or rejecting whatsoever they propose either 
besides or contrary to the sense of the Scripture : the 
other in like manner will have the judgment of the Fa- 
thers depend upon that of the Church then being in 
every age -, and approve, pass by, or condemn all such 
opinions of theirs, as the Church either approves, 
passes by, or condemns. So that although they differ 
in this, that the one attributes the supremacy to the 
Scripture, and the other to the Church of their age 5 yet 
notwithstanding they both agree in this, that both the 
one and the other of them equally deprive the Fathers 
of the same 5 insomuch that they both of them spend 



300 



THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 



their time unprofitably enough, whilst they trouble them- 
selves in pleading their cause before this inferior court, 
where the wrangling and cunning tricks of the law have 
so much place $ where the judgments are hard to be 
obtained, and yet harder to be understood ; and, when 
all is done, are not supreme, but are such as both par- 
ties believe they may lawfully appeal from; whereas 
they might, if they pleased, let alone these troublesome 
and useless detours, and come at the first before the 
supreme tribunal ; whether it be that of the Scriptures 
or of the Church ; where the suits are not so long, and 
where the subtlety of pleading is of much less use ; 
where the sentences also are more clear and express, 
and (which is the chief thing of all) such as we can- 
not appeal from. But that we may not be thought to 
impose this opinion upon the Church of Rome unjustly, 
let us hear them speak themselves. 

Cardinal Cajetan, in his preface on the five books of 
Moses, speaking of his own Annotations, says thus : " If 
you chance there to meet with any new exposition, which 
is agreeable to the text, and not contrary either to 
the Scriptures or to the doctrine of the Church, although 
perhaps it differs from that which is given by the whole 
current of the holy doctors 5 I shall desire the readers 
that they would not too hastily reject it, but that they 
would rather censure charitably. Let them remember 
to give every man his due : there are none but the au- 
thors of the Holy Scriptures alone, to whom we attri- 
bute such authority, as that we ought to believe whatso- 
ever they have written. But as for others (says St. 
Augustin), of however great sanctity and learning they 
may have been, I so read them, that I do not believe 
what they have written merely because they have writ- 
ten it. Let no man therefore reject a new exposition of 
any passage of Scripture, under pretence that it is con- 
trary to what the ancient Doctors gave ; but let him 
rather diligently examine the text, and the contexture 
of the Scripture ; and if he find that it accords well 
t herewith, let him praise God, who has not tied the 
exposition of the Scriptures to the sense of the ancient 
Doctors, but to the whole Scripture itself, under the 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 301 

censure of the Catholic Church."* For Canus, bishop 
of the Canary Islands, having before declared himself, 
according as St. Augustin has done, saying that the Holy 
Scriptures only are exempt from all error, he further 
adds : " But there is no man, however holy or learned 
he be, who is not sometimes deceived, who does not 
sometimes dote, or sometimes not slip."t Then adducing 
some of those examples which we have before produced, 
he concludes in these words : u Let us therefore read 
the ancient Fathers with all due reverence'; yet notwith- 
standing, as they were but men, with discrimination and 
judgment." J A little afterwards he says, "That the 
Fathers sometimes fail, and bring forth monsters, out 
of the ordinary course of nature." § And in the same 
place he says that " To follow the ancients in all things, 
and to tread everywhere in their steps, as little children 
use to do in play, is nothing else but to disparage our 
own parts, and to confess ourselves to have neither judg- 
ment nor skill enough for searching into the truth. 
No, let us follow them as guides, but not as masters." 
It is very true (says Ambrosius Catharinus in like man- 
ner) that the sayings and writings of the Fathers have 



*"Si quando occurrit novus sensus textui consonus, nee a sacra 
Scriptura, nee ab ecclesiae doctrina dissonus, quamvis a torrente 
doctorum sacrorum alienus, rogo lectores omnes ne prsecipites detes- 
tentur, sed equos se praebeant censores. Meminerint jus suum uni- 
cuique tribuere ; solis sacrae Scripturse auctoribus reservata aucto- 
ritas haec est, ut ideo sic credamus esse, quia ipsi ita scripserunt. 
Alios autem (inquit Augustinus) ita lego, ut quantalibet sanctitate 
doctrinaque prsepolleant, nonideo credam sic esse, quia ipsi ita scrip- 
serunt. Nullus itaque detestetur novum S. Scripturse sensum, ex 
hoc quod dissonat priscis doctoribus ; sed scrutetur perspicacius 
textum et contextum Scripturse, et si quadrare invenerit, laudet 
Deum, qui non alligavit expositionem S. Scripturarum priscorum 
doctorum sensibus, sed Scripturse ip i integrse sub Catholicae eccle- 
siae censura. — Thorn, de Via. Card. Cajet. prcef. in Pentat. 

f Cseteroqui nemo quantumvis eruditus, et sanctus, non interdum 
allucinatur, non alicubi csecutit, non quandoque labitur — Melch. 
Can. loc. Theol. I. 7, c. 3, num. 4. 

± Legendum itaque a nobis Patres veteros cum reverentia quidem, 
sed ut homines, cum delectu atque judicio — Id. ibid. 

§ Reliqui vero scriptores sancti inferiores et huraani sunt, defici- 
untque interdum, ac monstrum quandoque pariunt, prseter conveni- 
entem ordinem institumque naturae — Ibid, num. 7. 



302 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

not of themselves any such absolute authority, as that 
we are bound to assent to them in all things."* 

The Jesuits also themselves inform us sufficiently in 
many places, that they do not reckon themselves so 
tied to follow the judgment of the Fathers in all things, 
as people may imagine. 

Petavius, in his annotations upon Epiphanius, con- 
fesses freely, " That the Fathers were men ; that they 
had their failings ; and that we ought not maliciously to 
search after their errors, that we may lay them open to 
the world ; but that we may take the liberty to note 
them whenever they come in our way, to the end that 
none be deceived by them : and that we ought no more 
to maintain or defend their errors, than we ought to 
imitate their vices, if at least they had any."f And 
again, "That many things have slipped from them, 
which if they were examined according to the exact 
rule of truth, could not be reconciled to any good 
sense :"$ and that he himself has observed, u that they 
are out sufficiently, whenever they speak of such points 
of faith as were not at all called in question in their 
time."§ To say the .truth, he often rejects both their 
opinions and their expositions, and sometimes very un- 
civilly too, as we have noticed before, speaking of his 
notes upon Epiphanius.|| In one place, (the authority 
of some of the Fathers which contradicted his opinion 
on the exposition of a certain passage in St. Luke, being 
objected against him) never taking the least notice of 
their testimonies, he answers, — u That we ought to inter- 
pret and expound the Fathers by St. Luke, rather than 
St. Luke by them 5 because they cannot herein say any- 

* Verissimum ergo est, quod sanctorum dicta, vel scripta, in se 
non sunt firmse auctoritatis, ut in singulis teneamur illis prabere as- 
sensum. — Ambros. Catharin, lib* 4. Annot, in Cajet. ;;. 273. 

f Nos ea, qua par est, moderatione in divinorum hominum, 
sed hominum, errores, ac lapsus non tarn inquirimus, quam oblatos 
ultro, ac vel invitis occurrentes, ne cui fraudi sint, patefacimus : 
tueri autem, ac defendere nihilo magis quiim eorum vitia, si quae fue- 
rint, imitari debemus. — Petav. in Kjupk. ;>. 205. 

t Quanquam multa sunt a sanctissimis patribus, prsesertim a 
Chrysostomo in Homiliis aspersa, quae si ad exactae veritatis regulam 
accommod&re volueris, boni scnsus inania videbuntur. — Id. in Epiph, 
p. -244. § Id. ibid. p. 285. || Supr. c. 14. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 303 

thing but what they have received from St. Luke."* 
This in my judgment was very judiciously spoken ; and 
besides exactly agrees with what St. Augustin said be- 
fore,, and which may very well be applied to the greatest 
part of our differences \ in all of which the Fathers 
could not know anything, except what they learnt out 
of the Scriptures : so that their testimonies in these 
cases ought, according to the opinion of this learned 
Jesuit, to be expounded and interpreted by the Scrip- 
tures, and not the Scriptures by them. And this is the 
language of all the rest of them. 

Maldonate, who was a most bitter enemy of the 
Protestants as ever was, having delivered the judgment 
of some of the Fathers, who were of opinion that the 
sons of Zebedee answered not so rightly, when being 
asked by our Saviour, whether or not they were able to 
drink of his cup and to be baptized with the baptism 
that he was baptized with, they said unto him, that 
they were able ; adds, " That for his part, he believes 
that they answered well/'f In another place, ex- 
pounding the second verse of the 19th chapter of St. 
Matthew, having first brought in the interpretations of 
various, and indeed in a manner of all, the Fathers, he 
says at last, " That he could not be persuaded to un- 
derstand the passage as they did!" J 

Here you are to observe by the way, that the mean- 
ing of this passage is still controverted at this day. 
How then can this man conceive that the Protestants 
should think themselves bound necessarily to follow the 
judgment of this major part of the Fathers, which they 
themselves make so light of? In another place, where 
he has occasion to speak of those words of our Saviour, 
which are at this day in dispute among us, " The gates 
of hell shall not prevail against it," he is yet much 

* Nee est quod certorum patrum opponatur auctoritas, qui non 
aliud affirmare possunt, quam quod ex Luca didicerunt, neque est 
ulla ratio cur ex illorum verbis Lucam interpretemur potius, quam 
ex Luca quae ab illis asseverari videntur Petav. in Epiph. p. 110. 

f Malo ego credere, nee temere, nee inscienter, sed amanter et 
vere respondisse, &c. — Maldonat. in Matth. xx. 22. 

\ Quam interpretationem adduci non possum ut sequor, &c. — 
Id. in Matt. xix. 11. 



304 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

more positive, and says, " The sense of these words is 
not rightly given by any author that I can remember, 
except St. Hilary."* So likewise upon the eleventh 
chapter of St. Matthew, v. 11, where it is said, " The 
least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the 
Baptist." "The opinions of the Fathers upon this pas- 
sage (says he) are very different ; and to speak freely, 
none of them pleases me."t In like manner, upon the 
sixth chapter of St. John; " Ammonius, (saith he), St. 
Cyril, Theophylact, and Euthymius, answer that all 
are not drawn, because all are not worthy. But this 
comes too near to Pelagianism."J 

Salmeron, a famous Jesuit, says thus : u Our ad- 
versaries bring arguments from the antiquity of the 
Fathers ; which I confess has always been of more 
esteem than novelty. I answer, " that every age has 
yielded to antiquity, &c. But yet we must take liberty 
to say, that the later the Doctors the more quicksighted 
they are." § And again, " Against all this great multi- 
tude, which they bring against us, we answer (says he) 
out of the word of God ; Thou shalt not follow a multi- 
tude to do evil ; neither shalt thou speak in a cause, to 
decline after many, to wrest judgment." || 

Michael Medina, disputing at the council of Trent, 
on the superiority of a bishop over a priest, the autho- 
rity of St. Hierome and St. Augustin being produced 
against him, who both held that the difference betwixt 

* Quorum verborura sensus non videtur mihi esse, quern omnes, 
preter Hilarium, quos legisse memini, auctores putant. — Id. in Matth. 
xvi. 18. 

t Habet ex multis opinionibus quam eligat lector ; sed si meam 
quoque sententiam avet audire, libere fatebor, in nulla prorsus 
earuin meum qualecunque judicium acquiescere — LI. in Matt. xi. 11. 

\ Ammonius, Cyrillus, Theophylactus, et Euthymius, respondent 
non omnes trahi, quia non omnes digni sunt ; quod nimis affine est 
Pelagianorum errori Id. in Joh. vi. 44. 

§ Tertio, argumenta petunt a Doctorum antiquitate, cui semper 
major honor est habitus, quam novitatibus. Respondetur, quamli- 
bet oetatem antiquitati semper detulisse, &c. sed illud efferimus quo 
juniores, eo perspicatiores esse Doctores. — Saimer. in Ep. ad Rom* v. 
disjntl. 51. p. 468. 

|| Denique contra banc quam objeetant multitudinem, respondemus 
ex verbo Dei, (Exod. xxiii. ) M In judicio plurimorum non aquiesccs 
Bententue, ut a vero devies." — lb. col. 1. 






AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 305 

them was not of divine but only of positive and ecclesi- 
astical right, answers before the whole congregation, 
" That it is no marvel that they, and some others also of 
the Fathers, fell into this heresy 5 this point being not 
as then clearly determined." * 

That no one may doubt of the honesty of the his- 
torian who relates this, only hear Bellarmine, who tes- 
tifies, " That Medina assures us that St. Hierome was, in 
this point, of Arius's opinion ; and that not only he but 
also St. Ambrose, St. Augustin, Sedulius, Primasius, 
Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, and Theophylact 
maintained all of them the same heresy/'f 

We need not here adduce any more examples : for 
only read their commentaries, their disputations, and 
their other discourses, and you will find them almost 
in every page either rejecting or correcting the Fathers. 
But I must not pass by the testimony of Cornelius 
Mussus, bishop of Bitonto, w r ho indeed is more inge- 
nuous and clearer than all the rest. u O Rome (says 
he) to whom shall we go for divine counsels, unless to 
those persons to whose trust the dispensation of the 
divine mystery has been committed ? We are therefore 
to hear him, who is to us instead of God, in things that 
concern God, as God himself. Certainly for my own 
part (that I may speak my mind freely) in things that 
belong to the mysteries of faith, I had rather believe 
one single Pope than a thousand Augustins, Hieromes, 
or Gregories, that I may not speak of Richards, Sco- 
tusses, and Williams ; for I believe and know that the 
Pope cannot err in matters of faith, because the autho- 
rity and right of determining all such things as are 
points of faith, reside in the Pope." J This passage may 

* Pietr. Soavez Pol. hist. del. concil. Trident. 1. 7. p. 570. 

f Michael Medina in lib. 1. de sacr. horn. orig. et contin. c. 5, 
affirmat St. Hieronymum idem omnino cum Adrianis sensisse ■ neque 
solum Hieronymum in ea haeresi fuisse, sed etiam Ambrosium, Augus- 
tinum, Sedulium, Primasium, Theodoretum, CEcumenium, et Theo- 
phylactum — Bellarm. de Cler. L 1. cap. 15. 

J A quo, Roma, quaerenda sunt divina consilia, nisi ab illis, qui- 
bus mysteriorum Dei dispensatio credita est ? Quern ergo pro Deo 
habemus, in his quae Dei sunt, quicquid ipse dixerit tanquam Deum 
audire debemus. Ego (ut ingenue fatear) plus uni summo Pontifici 
crederem in his, quae fidei mysteria tangunt, quam mille Augustinis, 



306 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

seem to some, to be both a very bold and a very indis- 
creet one: but yet whoever shall but examine the 
matter seriously, and as it is in itself, and not as it is 
in its outward appearances only, which are contrived 
for the most part only to amuse the simpler sort of 
people, I am confident he will find that this author has 
both most ingenuously and most truly given the world 
an account in what esteem the Church of Rome holds 
the Fathers. For, seeing that these men maintain that 
the Pope is infallible, and they confess withal that the 
Fathers may have erred : who sees not, that they set 
the Pope much above the Fathers ? Nor may it here be 
replied, that they do not all of them hold that the Pope 
is infallible. For, besides that those among them who 
contradict this opinion are both the least and the least 
considerable part also of the Church of Rome, these 
very men attribute to the present Church in being, in 
every age, this right of infallibility, which they will not 
allow the Pope : insomuch that a council now called 
together, is, according to their account, of much greater 
authority than the ancient Fathers. So that there is 
no more difference at all between these men and the 
fore-mentioned Italian bishop, except only that whereas 
they will have the authority of the ancient Fathers to 
submit to the whole body of modern bishops assembled 
in a general council ; he will have their authority to be 
less than that of a single Pope alone. All that can be 
found fault with in that speech of his, is, perhaps, that 
his hyperbolical way of expression, of a thousand Au- 
gustins, Hieromes, and Gregories, all which joined 
together, he in too disdainful a manner casts down 
beneath the feet of one single Pope. But this height of 
expression may be somewhat excused in him, consider- 
ing that such excesses as these are very common with 
all high and free minded persons. 

But the practice of the Church of Rome itself will 
be able to inform us more truly and clearly what 

Hieronymis, Gregoriis ; ne dicam Richardis, Scotis, Gulielmis. Credo 
enim, et scio, quod summus Pontifex, in his quae fidei sunt, errare 
non potest ; quoniam auctoritas determinandi qua? ad fidem spec- 
tant, in Pontilice residet. — Com. Muss, episcop. llitont. in ep. ad 
Horn. c. 14. ;;. 606. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 307 

esteem they have of antiquity. For if we ought to 
stand to the Fathers, and not to depart from anything 
they have authorised, nor to ordain any thing which 
they were ignorant of, how comes it to pass, that we at this 
day see so many various observances and customs which 
were observed by the ancients, now quite laid aside ? 
And whence is it that we find in antiquity no mention at 
all of many things which are now in great request 
amongst us ? There are as it were three principal parts 
in religion ; namely, points of belief, of ceremony, and 
of discipline. We shall run over lightly all three, and 
so far as is necessary only for our present purpose ; 
that so we may let the world see, that in every one of 
these three parts they have both abolished and esta- 
blished many things expressly against the authority of 
the ancients. 

As for the first of these, we have already given the 
reader some specimens only in the preceding chapters. 
For we have seen that the opinion of the greatest part 
of the ancient Church on the state of the soul, till the 
time of the resurrection, which besides is at this day 
also maintained by the Greek Church, w T as condemned, 
not much above two hundred years since, by the Church 
of Rome, at the council of Florence ; and a quite con- 
trary belief there established, as an article of the Chris- 
tian faith. 

We have seen besides, that the opinion of the Fathers 
of the primitive church, and even down as far as to the 
end of the sixth century after our Saviour Christ, and 
afterward, was, that the eucharist was as necessary to 
salvation as baptism ; and that consequently it was 
therefore to be administered to little children. Yet for 
all this, the council of Trent has condemned this 
opinion as an error in faith ; anathematizing, by canon 
made expressly for that purpose, all those whoever 
should maintain the same. "Let him be accursed (say 
they) whoever shall say that the eucharist is necessary 
for little children before they come to years of discre- 
tion."* That the Fathers might not take offence hereat, 
as having so fearful an affront put upon them ; these 

* Si quis dixerit, parvulis, antequam ad annos discretionis perve- 
niant, necessariam esse eucharistae communionem, anathema sit. — 
Concil. Trident. Sess. 21. Can. 



308 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

men have endeavoured to persuade both them and 
others, that they never did believe that, which them- 
selves have most clearly, and in express terms, protested 
that they did believe, as we have before made it ap- 
pear : which is, to double the injury upon them, rather 
than to make them any reparation for it ; seeing that 
they deal with them now, not as heretics only, but as 
fools also ; whom a man may at pleasure persuade 
that they do not believe that which they really do 
believe. 

We have abundantly heard, out of St. Hierome's 
mouth, how the opinion of the Chiliasts was of old 
maintained by several of the ancient Fathers 5 which 
yet is now condemned as an error in faith. And indeed 
the number of these kinds of differences in opinion is 
almost infinite. 

It was accounted no error in those days to believe 
that the soul was derived from the father down to the 
son, according to the ordinary course of generation : 
but this 'opinion would now be accounted a heresy. 

The ancients held, l( that it would be opposing the 
authority of the Scriptures, if we should hang up the 
picture of any man in the Church, '* and "that we ought 
not to have any pictures in our churches," that that 
which we worship and adore be not painted upon a wahY'f 
Now the council of Trent has ordained quite the con- 
trary, and says : " That we ought to have and to keep, 
especially in our churches, the images of Christ, of the 
Virgin the mother of God, and of the other saints ; and 
that we are to yield unto them all due honour and ve- 
neration.";}; 

All the ancient Fathers,§ as far as we can learn out 
of their writings, believed that the blessed Virgin 

* Cum ergo haec vidissem in ecclesia Christi contra auctoritatem 

Scripturarum, hominis pendentem imaginem, &c Epiphan. ep. ad 

Joh, Hierosol. t. 2. p. 217. c 2. 

f Placuit pirturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur aut 
adoratur, in parietibus depingatur. — Cone. Eliben t Can. 36. 

X Imagines porro Christi, Deiparae Virginia, et aliorum Sancto- 
rum, in templis prsesertim habendas et retinendas, eisque debitum 
honorem et venerationem impertiendam. — Concil. Triti, Sess. c. 5. 
DeCretO de IftVOCaU <\c. Sanctorum. 

§ Ambros. August. Chrysost. &c. de quibus vide Melch. Canum de 
loc. Theolog. 1. 7, num. 3. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 309 

Mary was conceived in original sin. If now the Fathers 
of the council of Trent accounted them to be the judges 
of faith ; what moved them then to imagine, that we 
ought not to believe that they maintained any such 
opinion. For, having delivered their definitive judg- 
ment in a decree there passed to this purpose, and de- 
clared that this sin, which has spread itself over the 
whole mass of mankind by propagation and not by imi- 
tation, has seized on every person in particular; they 
at length conclude, "That their intention is not to 
comprehend within this number the blessed and un- 
spotted Virgin Mary, the mother of God :"* which 
words of theirs it is impossible so to expound, that 
they shall not in plain terms give the lie to all the 
Fathers. For if they mean, by these words, the Virgin 
Mary was conceived without sin, they decidedly esta- 
blish an opinion contradictory to that of the Fathers : 
which is the grossest manner that can be of giving them 
the lie. If they mean here no more than this, (which 
sense yet their words will scarcely be ever made to bear,) 
that it is not known as a certain truth, that the Virgin 
Mary was conceived in sin ; they however honestly say, 
in plain terms, that these good men affirmed as true 
that which is yet doubtful, and maintained as certain 
that which was but problematical only and ques- 
tionable. 

The council of Laodicea, which is inserted in the code 
of the Church Universal, puts not into the same canonf 
of the Old Testament any more than twenty two books ; 
excluding by this means out of this number the book of 
Tobit, of Judith, the book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, 
and the two books of the Maccabees. Melito J bishop 
of Sardis, Origen,§ Cyril of Jerusalem, || Gregory 

* Declarat tamen hsec ipsa Sancta Synodus, non esse suae intenti- 
onis comprehendere in hoc decreto, ubi de peccato originali agitur, 
B. et immaculatam Virginem Mariam, Dei genitricem. — Cone, Tri- 
dent. Sess. 5. Decreto de Pecc. Origin. 

f Cone. Laod. Can. 59, 60. Cod. Graec. Can. Eccles. Univers. 
Can. 163. 

J Melit. Sard. apud. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 4. c. 27. 

§ Origen. apud Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1.6. c. 26. et in Philocal. c. 3. 

|| Cyril. Hieros. Catech. 4. 



310 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

Nazianzen,* St. Hilary,f and Epiphanius4 do a ^ °f 
them the same. Athanasius,§ Ruffinus|| and St. Hie- 
rome^T expressly reject these very books, and reject 
them from the canon. And yet, notwithstanding the 
aforesaid council of Trent, " Anathematizeth all those 
who will not receive, as holy and canonical, all these 
books, with every part of the same as they are wont to 
be read in the Church, and as they are found in the 
old Latin edition, commonly called the vulgar trans- 
lation."** 

Besides the affront which they have offered to so 
many of the ancient and most eminent among the 
Fathers, and indeed to the whole primitive church 
itself, which received this canon of Laodicea amongst 
its universal rules, they have also established a posi- 
tion here which was not till then so much as ever heard 
of in Christendom. Namely, that the old vulgar trans- 
lation of the Bible is to be admitted as canonical and 
authentic in the Church of God. 

The hundred-and-one Fathers of the second general 
council, and the six hundred and thirty of the fourth, 
were all of them of opinion that the ancients had ..ad- 
vanced the see of Rome above that of other bishops, 
by reason of the pre-eminence and temporal greatness 
of the city of Rome over other cities : and for the same 
reason they also thought good to advance in like manner 
the throne of the patriarch of Constantinople to the 
same height with the former, by reason of the city 
where he resided being now arrived to the self-same 
height of dignity with Rome itself : — Toy jjevrot Kuparav- 
TLVoviio\iit)Q E7ricrKQ7rov, s\elv to. 7rpE(rlj£ia rrjg tijul7]q fxera tov 

* Greg. Nazianz. Carm. 33. t. 2. p. 98. 

f Hilar. Prsefat. in Psal. fol. 2. 

j Ephiphan. 1. de ponder, et mens. t. 2. p. 162. 

$ Athan. ep. festal, t. 2. p. 38, 39, et Synops. Script, p. 58. 

|| Rufiin. Expos. Symb. inter opera Cypr. p. 552. 

f Hsec. Prol. Galeato, et Prol. in lib. Saloro. ad Paul, et Eu- 
stach. et Prol. in libr. Sal. ad Chron. et lleliod. et pra?fat. in Esdr. 

** Siquii autem Libroa ipsoB integros, cum omnibus suis partibus, 
prout in ecclesia Catholica legi consueverunt, et in veteri vulgata 
Latina oditione habentur, pro sacris et canonicis non susceperit, &c. 
anathema esto. — Cone, Trident* Scss. 4. Deer, de Can. script. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 311 

n]c 'Pwfiiig £~f-Q' oirov, ha to Eivai avrrjv veav 'Pw/iT/v*. . . . 
Kcu yap t<d Qpovio ti]q 7rpecrj3vT£paQ 'Po^z^c, eta to (5acn\EV£iv 
ty]v tto\lv ekelvtjv, ol TtaTtpEc, eIkotwq aTrohhoKaai Ta 
irpEGJDEia, &C. Tr)v jjatrCKeia kcu crvyKXrjTO) TifiijdeLcrav ttoXlv, 
KaiTU)v Iffiov aTroXavovaay irpeaJDEHov ti] 7TEpffj3vTEpa fiaaiXih 
'Pw/i//, Kai (v toiq tKK\r)(na(jTiK0LQ u>q ekelvtjv ixeyaXwEGdat 
TipayjjLaaL.^ 

I assure you, that for all this he would now be Ana- 
thema Maranatha, whoever should go about to derive 
the supremacy of the Pope from any other original, 
than from — " Tu es Petrus : et pasce oves meets." 

The council of Trent anathematizes all those who 
deny that bishops are a higher order than priests :| and 
yet St. Hierome,§ and divers others of the Fathers 
have openly done the same. 

We have already told you here before, that the Church 
of Rome long since excommunicated the Greeks, be- 
cause they held, that the Holy Ghost proceeds not from 
the Son, but from the Father only. And yet for all this 
Theodoret, who expressly denied in terms, that the 
Holy Ghost proceeded from the Son, as we have shewn 
in the preceding chapter, was received by the ancient 
Church, and in particular by Pope Leo, as a true 
Catholic bishop, without requiring him to declare him- 
self any otherwise ; or to give them any satisfaction on 
this point. 

Indeed we might enumerate many similar differences 
between the Roman and the ancient Church : but these 
examples w T e have produced will suffice to let the world 
see how the Church of Rome maintains that the autho- 
rity of the opinions of the ancients ought to be ac- 
counted supreme. 

We shall proceed, in the next place, to say something 
of the ceremonies in the Christian religion. 

The first of all is baptism., which takes us out of 

* Concil. Constant. I. Can. 3. 

+ Cone. Chalced. Can. 28. 

{ Si quis dixerit Episcopos non esse Presbyteris superiores, &c. 

anathema sit Cone. Trid. Sess. 23. cap. 4, et Con. 7. 

§ Hieron. passim ; vide supra lib. 1. c. ult. 



312 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

nature's stock, and engrafts us into Jesus Christ. Now 
it was a custom heretofore in the ancient Church, to 
plunge those they baptized over head and ears in the 
waterj as both Tertullian,* St. Cyprian,f Epiphanius,* 
and others testify. And indeed they plunged them 
thus three several times 5 as the same Tertullian§ and 
St. Hierome|| inform us. This is still the practice both 
of the Greek and the Russian Church, even at this very 
day. Yet, notwithstanding, this custom, which is both so 
ancient and so universal, is now abolished by the Church 
of Rome. And this is the reason that the Muscovites^ 
say, that the Latins are not rightly and duly baptized, 
because they use not this ceremony in their baptism, 
which they say is expressly enjoined them in the canons 
of Ioannes Metropolitans, whom they hold to have 
been a prophet. Indeed Gregory, the Greek monk, who 
was, notwithstanding, a great stickler for the union, in 
the council of Florence, yet confesses in his answer to 
the epistle of Mark, bishop of Ephesus, that it is neces- 
sary in baptism, that the persons to be baptized should 
be thrice dipped over head and ears in the water.** At 
their coming out of the water, in the ancient Church they 
gave them milk and honey to eat,ff as the same authors 
witness 5 J X and immediately after this they made them 
partakers also of the blessed communion, both great and 
small : whence the custom still remains in Ethiopia, 
of administering the eucharist to little children, and 
making them take down a small quantity of it, as soon 
as they are baptized. 

* Tertul. lib. de Cor. Mil. c. 3. 
f Cypr. ep. 76, p. 211, ubi vide Pamel. 
\ Epiphan. Pan. Hser. 30. p. 128. 

$ Tertull. lib. de Cor. Mil. c. 3, et lib. adv. Prax. c. 26. 
|| Hieron. Dial, advers. Lucifer, t. 2, p. 187. In lavacro tor 
caput mergitare. 

^ Cassand. 1. de Bapt. Inf. p. 693. 

** Greg. Mon. Protosync. in Apol. contr. ep. Marc. p. 721, t. 4, 

Cone. gen. 'On /uev avayxouOM taTi xou to 8/a toiu>v xaTaSuaeouv, &c. 

ff Deinde egressos lactis et mellis pnegustare concordiam. — Ter- 
tuU.el Hieron, Hbitujtr* 

XX A. tutti quelli die battezano, cosi maschi, come femine, danno 
il BBCramentO in poca quantita, &C« — Alvarez, in his voyage to Ethiopia 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 313 

, What have these great adorers of antiquity now done 
with these ceremonies ? Where is the milk, or the 
honey, or the eucharist, which the ancient Fathers were 
wont to administer to all, immediately after baptism ? 
Certainly these things, notwithstanding the practice of 
the ancients, have been now long since buried and for- 
gotten at Rome. 

In ancient times they often deferred the baptizing 
both of infants and of other people, as appears by the 
history of the emperors Constantine the Great,* of 
Constantius,f of Theodosius,| of -Valentinian, and of 
Gratian in St. Ambrose ;§ and also by the Orations and 
Homilies of Gregory Nazianzen,|| and of St. Basil, ^[ - 
upon this subject. Some of the Fathers too have been 
of opinion, that it is proper it should be deferred 5 for 
instance, Tertullian, as we have formerly noticed. 

How comes it to pass that there is not now so much 
as the least trace or footing of this custom to be found 
at this day in the Church of Rome ? Nay, whence is it 
besides that they will not so much as endure the very 
mention of it, and would abhor the man that should 
but attempt to put it in practice ? 

I shall here forbear to speak of the times of adminis- 
tering baptism, which was performed ordinarily in the 
ancient Church, but only upon the eves of Easter day, and 
of Whitsunday : neither shall I say anything of the 
ceremony of the Paschal taper, and the albes, or white 
vestments that the newly baptized persons were used 
to wear all Easter week -,** because it may be thought 
perhaps that these are too trivial : although, to say the 
truth, if we are to regard the authority of men, and not 
the reason of the things themselves, I do not see why all 
the rites should not still be retained, as well as those 
exorcisms, and renouncings of the devil and the world, 
with all its pomps and vanities, which, in imitation of 

* Euseb. de vita Constant. 1. 4. 

t Socrat. hist. Eccl. 1. 3, c. 37. J Id. 1. 4, c. 6. 

§ Ambros. orat. de obit. Valentin, t. 3, p. 9. 

II Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 40. 

^f Basil, homil. slg BanTicr/mov 7rpOTpe7TTtxy* 

** Cassand. in hynrno, p. 227, 328. 



314 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

antiquity, are at this day, though very improperly, acted 
by them over little infants, though only a day old. 

As for the eucharist, Cassander shews clearly that 
it was celebrated in the ancient Church with bread and 
wine, offered by the people :f and that the bread was 
first broken into several pieces, and then consecrated 
afterwards, and distributed among the faithful. Not- 
withstanding, the contrary use has now prevailed ; nor 
do they consecrate any bread which is offered by the 
people, which was the ancient custom, but only little 
wafer cakes, made round in the form of a coin ; which 
yet is very sharply reproved, in the old exposition of 
the " Ordo Romanus,"f &c. The same Cassander also 
gives us an account at large,! now m ancient times the 
canonical prayer, and the consecration of the eucharist, 
were read out with a loud voice, and in such a manner that 
the people might all of them be able to hear it, so that 
they might say Amen to it : whereas the priest now pro- 
nounces it with a very low voice, § so that none of the 
congregation can tell what he says ; and hence it is, that 
this part of the liturgy is called secret. 

We have heretofore shewn, || that the ancient Fathers 
concealed, as carefully as they could, the matter and 
the rites used in the celebration of this holy sacrament ; 
which they never performed in presence either of the 
catechumeni or of unbelievers. But now there is not 
any such care taken in this respect ; for they celebrate 
the eucharist openly and publicly, even before Jews, 
Pagans, or Mahommetans, without any more regard to 
these ancient rules, than if there had never been any 
such custom. And as if the design of these men were 
to run counter to antiquity in all things, when the sacra- 
ment was concealed as much as possible, they shew it 
now openly, and carry it publicly abroad every day 
through the streets, and sometimes also go in solemn 
procession with it; which custom of theirs is of very 
late standing among Christians, and which heretofore 



* Cassand. in Liturg. c. 26. 

| Apud Cassand. in Liturg. c. 26, p. 60. 

| Cassand. in Liturg. p. 63, 64, c. 28. 

§ Cone. Trid. Sess. 22, c. 5, et can. 9. f| Lib. i. c. 5. 









AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 315 

would have looked not only very strange, but would 
have been accounted rather profane and unlawful. And 
thus have the customs and observations of the ancient 
Fathers been quite laid aside, and other new ones, which 
they never heard of, instituted in their place. 

The same Cassander also proves,* that in ancient 
times they never celebrated the eucharist but in the 
presence of those that were to communicate ; and that 
all the rest withdrew. It is most clear, that St. Chry- 
sostom very bitterly reproves those who would assist 
at the celebration of the eucharist, though not commu- 
nicate. 

Indeed we at this day see, in the Ethiopic liturgy,! 
that the Gospel being read, the deacon cries aloud : 
" All you, that will not receive the sacrament, depart : 
withdraw you, catechumeni." And 'again, after the 
creed is sung, he says to the people, " Let them that 
will not communicate, depart."J But now-a-days, for 
the most part, none of those who assist at the celebra- 
tion, communicate of it : they content themselves with 
adoring the sacrament only, without partaking of it at 
all ; whence you have this manner of treating the sub- 
ject : — " to hear mass ;' and " to see mass" St. Chry- 
systom says : i( Whosoever shall stay here, and not 
participate of the mysteries, behaves himself like an im- 
pudent, shameless person. I beseech you, (says he) if 
any one that were invited to a feast, should come and 
sit down after he has washed his hands, and fitted him- 
self to come to the table, and at length should forbear to 
touch any of those dishes which are served in upon it, 
would not this be a very great affront to him who invited 
him ? Had he not better to have forborne coming at 
all ? It is the very same case here. Thou hast come, 
and hast sung the hymn, and, seeing thou hast not re- 
tired with those that were not worthy, hast thereby also 
professed thyself to be of the number of those who are 
worthy. How comes it to pass that, seeing thou hast 
staid behind, thou dost not communicate of this table ?" 
&C. — Hag yap 6 \xr\ fJLere\u)v tljv /mwrripnov avaiayyvTb)g, 
Kai IrajJLiog, eoTijaoc, &c. Et7Tf not, el rig elg kariaaiv KXrjQeig, 

* Cassand. in Liturg. 55, c. 26. f Liturg. iEthiop. j I^d. 

p2 



316 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

Tag yEipaq vLX^atro, Kai KaraKXidr], k<xi etoljjioq yrjvoiro Trpog 
rrjv Tpcnre^av, eItcl jjlt) \}iETEypC ovyj- vj3pi£ei top KaXeaavra ; 
ov fieXriov toy toiovtov jjlt\ce TrapayEVEadai ; ovrto Se /cat av 
Trapuyeyovac, rov v\ivov rjcrag jxEra 7ravru)v, w/jLoXoyrjcrac eivcll 
tu)v alitor, to) /jltj /xera rioy ava^LOJv avaKE^wprjKEpar 7ro)Q 

EfXELVac, KCU OV jJLETEyELQ TT)Q TpaTTE^Q J* 

If any man should now preach this doctrine to the 
Romanists, would they not laugh at him as a ridiculous 
fellow ? inasmuch as their custom in this particular 
is far different (as every one sees), from what it was 
heretofore in the ancient Church. 

It is as clear as the day, that all along in the ancient 
Church it was lawful for any of the faithful to take 
home with them the holy eucharist, which they might 
keep in any private place,, to take it afterwards by them- 
selves alone, whenever they pleased. Whence it is that 
Tertullian advises those who durst not communicate 
upon the days appointed for that purpose, for fear of 
breaking their fast, to keep the body of Christ by them. 
" Receiving the body of Christ (says he), and keeping 
it by thee, both are preserved entire ; both the partici- 
pation of the sacrifice, and the discharge of thy duty/'f 

This appears also by a story related by St. Cyprian, 
of a certain woman " who going about to open, with 
unworthy hands, a coffer of hers, where the eucharist 
was laid up, she presently saw fire breaking out thence ; 
which so amazed her, that she durst not touch it. "J 

St. Ambrose also, a long while after St. Cyprian, 
testifies sufficiently that this custom in his time con- 
tinued in the Church ; where he tells the story of his 
brother Satyrus, who being upon the sea, and in danger 
of shipwreck, u And fearing lest he should go out of 
the world without the holy mysteries (for he was yet 
but of the number of the catechumeni), he made his ad- 
dresses to those whom he knew to have been initiated, 
and desired of them to give him the divine sacrament 

* Chrysost. Homil. 3, in ep. ad Ephes. t..3, p. 778, edit Savilii. 

t Accepto corpore Domini, et reservato, utrumque salvum est, 
et participatio sacriticii, et executio officii. — TertuL lib. de orat. c. 4. 

\ Cum quaedam arcam suam, in qua Domini sanctum fuit, mani- 
bus indignis tentasset aperire, igne inde surgente deterrita est, ne 
auderct attingcrc. — Cyprian. 1. de laps. p. 244. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 317 

of the faithful : not that he might therewith satisfy the 
curiosity of his eyes, but that it might strengthen his 
faith. And thus having put it into a handkerchief, and 
then tying the handkerchief about his neck, he threw 
himself into the sea, and was saved."* 

If Rome indeed bears such great respect to the Fathers, 
as they would make us believe, why has she not then 
retained this custom? Why then should that which 
was then so ordinarily practised, be now in our days so 
much disliked, that they will not by any means permit 
the friars to keep the eucharist in their convent, nor 
yet in their choir, nor in any other place, save only the 
public church. f 

St. Ambrose informs us moreover, that in those times 
they made no scruple at all of carrying the eucharist 
upon the sea ; which custom of the ancients is so much 
disliked by the Church of Rome in our days, that they 
hold it an unlawful thing, either to consecrate or to 
carry the Sacrament ready consecrated, upon any wa- 
ter whatever, whether it be that of the sea or of rivers. 

This very custom of the ancients keeping the sacrament 
by them, proves very clearly that the faithful in those 
days received the sacrament with their hands : which 
is also plainly enough intimated unto us by Tertullian 5 
where, inveighing against those among the Christians, 
who were gravers and painters by profession, he reproves 
them " for touching the body of our Saviour with those 
very hands which bestowed bodies on devils :" J that is 
to say, with those hands wherewith they made idols. 
St. Cyprian is clear in point in divers places :§ Gre- 
gory Nazianzen also testifies the same in his 63rd 
poem : — Ovce X € P £ € (ppicrffovatv, iirr)v eg jivgtiv eSuSyjv tei- 
yac,|| &c. And in the canons of the council of Con- 

* Non mortem metuens, sed ne vacuus mysterii exiret e vita, quos 
initiatos esse cognoverat, ab his divinum illud fidelium Sacra- 
mentum poposcit, non ut curiosos oculos insereret arcanis, sed ut 
fidei suae consequeretur auxilium. Etenim ligari fecit in orario, et 
orarium involuit collo, atque ita se dejecit in mare. — Ambros. deobit. 
Satyr, p. 19, t. 3. 

f Cone. Trid. Sess. 25. de regul. etMon. cap. 10. 

X Eas manus admovere corpori Domini, quae daemoniis corpora 
conferunt — Tertul.lib. de Idol. cap. 7. 

§ Cyprian, ep. 56, et lib. de bono Patientiae, p. 316. 

|| Greg. Naz. Carm. 63. 



3 IS THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

stantinople in Trullo, holden in the year of our Lord 
680, there is one which appoints, " That he, who is to 
communicate, place his hands in the form of a cross, 
and so receive the communication of grace :" (« tiq tov 
axpav-ov arbjfiaTog, &c.) :* whichhad been the practice from 
the time of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Yet notwithstand- 
ing there is no one but knows that this custom has no 
place now in the Church of Rome ; where the commu- 
nicants receive the eucharist, not with their hand but 
with their mouth, into which it is put by the priest. 

I would also gladly be informed, by what canon of 
the ancient Church those single masses, which are now 
celebrated and said every day, where none communicates 
but the priest alone who consecrates the host, were in- 
stituted or permitted : and moreover how that respect 
which they pretend they bear to antiquity, can stand 
with that canon of the council of Trent, which says : 
" Whosoever shall say, that those masses wherein the 
priest alone communicateth sacramentally, are unlawful, 
and fit to be abolished, let him be accursed :"f seeing 
that this kind of masses were utterly unknown to the 
ancient Church, as Cassander proves at large, in his 
" Consultatio de Articulis Religionist written to the Em- 
peror Ferdinand, j 

But that which most of all gives offence to those devot- 
ed to antiquity, is the custom which the Church of Rome 
has introduced and established, by the express decrees 
and canons of two of their general councils, the one 
holden at Constance, § and the other at Trent, || of not al- 
lowing the communion of the cup to any but to the priest 
who consecrates the same ; excluding by this means, 
first, all the laity ; and secondly, all the priests and other 
of the clergy, who had not the consecrating of it : where- 
as the whole ancient Church, for the space of fourteen 

* Synod. Quinis. Can. 101. 

f Si quis dixerit missas, in quibus solus sacerdos sacramental iter 
communicat, illicitas esse, ideoqueabrogandas, anathema sit. — Cone. 
Trid. Suss. 22, c. 0, ct Can. 8. 

X Cassan. Consult, ad Ferdin. &c. p. 995, et in Liturg. p. 83. 
cap. 33. 

§ ('one. Constant Sets* 13. 

|| Cone. Trid. Sess. 21, c. et 2, Can. 2. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 319 

hundred years, admitted both the one and the other to 
the communion of the holy and blessed cup, as well as 
to the participation of the consecrated bread -, as those 
of these two councils themselves confess, in the preface 
to this New Constitution.* And this is still the practice 
also at this day among all Christians throughout the 
world, both Russians, Greeks,f Armenians, Ethio- 
pians, X Protestants, § and all others in general, except 
the Latins only, who are of the communion of the Church 
of Rome. But besides the ancients permitting this 
communion under both kinds (as they used to speak), it 
seems (which isyet much more) that unless it were in some 
extraordinary cases, they did not at all permit the commu- 
nicating under one kind only. For otherwise, why should 
Pope Leo give this very thing, as a mark to distinguish 
the Maniehees from the Catholics ? " When they 
sometimes are present at our mysteries (says he), that 
so they may hide their infidelity, they so order the mat- 
ter, in their participating of these mysteries, that they 
receive the body of Christ into their unworthy mouth, 
but will not take into it one drop of the blood of our 
redemption :" and he further adds, " That he gives his 
auditory this warning, that they may know those meu 
by this mark."!! 

Should this pope now arise from his grave, and 
come into the world again, he w T ould certainly believe 
that all those who adhere to his see, were turned 
Maniehees, except the consecrating priests alone. 
How besides would you be able, without this hypothe- 
sis, to explain that decree of Pope Gelasius, which says, 
" We are informed, that there are some, who having 

* Licet ab initio Christianas religionis non infrequens utriusque 
speciei usus fuisset, &c. — Ibid, c 2. 

f Jerem. P. CN. Resp. 1. ad Witemb. 

j Quanti si communicano col corpo, si communicano auche col 
sangue. — Alvarez, in his Voyage, ch. 11. 

§ Confess. Eccles. Angl. art. 12. 

|| Cumque ad tegendam infidelitatem suam nostris audeant in- 
teresse mysteriis, ita in sacramentorum communione se temperant, ut 
interdum tutiiis lateant, ore indigno Christi corpus accipiunt, san- 
guinem autem redemptionis nostra? omnino haurire declinant. Quod 
ideo vestram volumus scire sanctitatem, ut vobis hujusmodi homines 
et his manifestentur indiciis, &c. — Leo. 1 , P. R. Serm. 4, de Qitadrag. 
p. 108. 



320 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

taken a small portion of the sacred body only, forbear 
to partake of the consecrated blood $ doing this, as we 
hear, out of I know not what superstitious conceit 
wherewith they are possessed ; we therefore will, that 
they either partake of the whole sacrament, or else that 
they be wholly put back from communicating of either ; 
forasmuch as there cannot, without very great sacrilege, 
be any division made in one and the same mystery. "* 

Indeed what can you otherwise say to that story 
which is related by the accusers of Ibas bishop of 
Edessa ; that he having one time made but a very scan- 
ty provision of wine for the service of the altar, which, 
after it had been begun to be distributed about to the 
communicants, began quickly to fail : " He perceiving 
this, beckoned to those who delivered about the holy 
body, that they should come back again ; because there 
was no more left of the blood of our Saviour :" — f £2or£ 
toiq to ayiov cwjua SiavejjiovGLv evevaev itcreXdetr avrovc, 
wg tov aijiaroQ jjltj evpMTKojjievov.^ 

What need was there of ordering them to suspend 
the business, because there was no more wine, if it was 
at that time lawful to distribute the bread alone, without 
the wine ? If the councils of Trent and of Constance had 
accounted the authority of the Fathers as supreme, how 
came it to pass that they abolished that which had for 
so long a time, and so constantly, been observed by 
them ? And how again does this other canon of the 
council of Trent agree with that deference which they 
pretend to bear towards antiquity; where it is said that 
" Whosoever shall say that the holy Catholic Church 
has not been induced by just causes and reasons to 
communicate to the laity, and even to the priests also, 
who do not consecrate under the kind of bread only ; or 
that it has erred in this point, let him be accursed.";); 



* Comperimus autem, quod quidam sumpta tantummodo cor- 
poris sacri portione, a calice sacri cruoris abstineant, &c. quia divi- 
sio uniua ejusdemque mysterii sine grandi sacrilegio non potest pro- 
venire. — Gelas. Juh. ei Moj, Episc. Dtccet. de Consecrat. dist, 2, c. 12. 

f Act. Condi. Chalced. act. 16, p. 356, torn. 2., Concil. gen. 

\ Si quia dizerit sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam non justis causte 
et rationibus addnctam fuisse, ut laicos, atqueetiam clericos non con- 
ficientea sub panis tantummodo specie communicaret, aut in eoerras- 
se, anathema sit. — Coke, Trid. Sets, 21, Can, 2. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 321 

It seems to be no very easy matter to be able to ac- 
quit the modern Church, without condemning the 
ancient, seeing their practices have been manifestly con- 
tradictory to each other -, the modern Church forbidding 
that which the ancient permitted ; and the ancient 
Church seeming to have expressly forbid that which the 
modern commands. 

How can you say that the one had just reasons for 
what it did, unless you grant that the other, in do- 
ing the contrary, had either no reason at all, or else 
but very unjust ones ; seeing that it is most clear that 
neither the world nor the times are any whit changed, 
within these two hundred years, from what they were 
before ? For it is impossible for any man to allege any 
reason for the practice of the moderns, which should not 
in like manner have obliged the ancients : nor again to 
produce any reason for the contrary practice of the an- 
cients, which does not in likte manner oblige the mo- 
derns. So that of necessity, either the one or the other 
of them must needs have been guilty either of error, or, 
at least, of negligence and ignorance. We may very 
well therefore conclude, that the Church of Rome, 
seeing it believes itself to be infallible, manifestly 
in this particular condemned the ancient Church, as 
guilty of ignorance, or of negligence at the least ; which 
in my judgment seems not so well becoming those per- 
sons who do nothing else but continually preach to us 
the honour of antiquity. But here will all the reverers 
of antiquity have good sport. For as for those reasons, 
by which the Fathers of the council of Trent were in- 
duced to make the afore-mentioned decree, how (will 
they say) may we be able to come to the knowledge 
whether they were just or not ; seeing that they them- 
selves produce none at all ? Whereas the reasons 
which induced the ancients to do as they did, and which 
you have set down at large in a certain discourse printed 
at Paris, at the end of Cassander's works, are very sound 
and clear, and in my judgment very full both of wis- 
dom and of charity.* 

* Inter Opera Cassand. pag. 1019. 
p 5 



322 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

We need not enter further into this disputation : it 
is sufficient for my purpose, that the Church of Rome, 
in doing thus, has manifestly abolished a very ancient 
custom in the Church. 

Besides these ceremonies, which were practised by the 
Fathers in baptism and in the eucharist, they have laid 
by many other also, which have been heretofore in use in 
the Church. I shall not here speak of fasting on Satur- 
days, which is observed by the Church of Rome, con- 
trary to the ancient practice of the whole Christian 
Church,who all accounted it unlawful : because this differ- 
ence in practice is as ancient as St. Augustin's time,* 
and therefore ought not to be imputed to the modern 
Church of Rome. I shall for the same reason also pass 
by that which Firmilianus says ;t namely, that in his 
time, about two hundred and fifty years after the nativity 
of our Saviour Christ, " Those of Rome did not in all 
things observe whatsoever had been delivered from the 
beginning ; and that they did in vain allege the autho- 
rity of the Apostles/'f 

I shall here request the reader to notice, that an- 
ciently it was a general custom throughout all Chris- 
tendom, ?iot to kneel, either upon the Lord's days, or 
upon any day betwixt Easter-day and Whit- Sun- 
day : which custom has been generally abolished by 
the entire Church of Rome : and yet notwithstanding, 
whether you consider the antiquity, or whether you look 
upon the authority of those who both practised this 
themselves, and also recommended it to our observance, 
you will hardly find any more venerable custom than 
this. For the author of the " Questions and Answers," 
attributed to Justin Martyr, makes mention of this cus- 
tom, and moreover gives the reason and ground of it j and 
besides, proves by a certain passage, which he produces 
out of Irenaeus, that it had its beginning in the Aposto- 
lical times : — Ek tojv a.7ro(TTo\iKu)y Se yjpovwv i) TOiavrr) uvv- 

TjOetU tK'tjJE T1]V <ipX T l t '> KClOu)£ (j)r)<TlV 6 fJLCLKapLCH: KlpY/VCllOC & 

* August, t. 2, Ep. 86, ad Caaulan. p. 74 et 75. 

f Boa qui Roma sunt non ea in omnibus observare, quae Bint ab 
orgine tradita, at fruatra Apostolornm auctoritatem pretendere, 
save quia etiam Lnde potest, &c. — Fir/nil. in Ep, ad, Cypr* (jute est 
itUer Epist. Ct/pr, 75. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS QP RELIGION. 323 

fJLCLpTVQ, KCLl 6 7TL(TK07rOQ AovyfioVPOV, EV TO) TTEpt TOV llarjya 

Xoyu), &c* 

Tertullian also speaks of this custom :f and both 
Epiphanius^J and St. Hierome,$ class it among the 
institutions of the Church : and which is yet more than 
all this, the sacred general council of Nice authorizes 
the same, by an express canon made to that purpose. 
" Forasmuch as there are some (say these 318 venerable 1 
Fathers) who kneel upon the Lord's day, and upon the 
days of Pentecost ; to the end that in all parishes, or (as 
we now speak) dioceses, there may be the same order 
observed in all things, this holy synod ordains that (on 
these days) they all pray standing :" — 'EwecSt) tlveq eIctlv 
iv ry Kvpicucrj yovv kXlvovtec, kcll ev raig rrjg HEVTTjicovTrjg 
ilfjLepaiQy v7T£p tov wavra iv iraar] irapEiKia b/moiiog (pvXarrE- 
crdai, EGTuiTCLQ eSo^e ttj dyta 2vvo$o), rag Evyag aVoc^ovctt 
TO) 6eo).\\ 

This ancient constitution was revived and explained 
in the council of Constantinople in Trullo,^[ towards the 
end of the 7th century ; where it was expressly forbidden to 
/c/zeeZ during the space of those twenty-four hours that pass 
between Saturday evening and Sunday evening. Every 
one is also aware how they have abrogated the fast, that 
was wont to be observed upon the fourth day of the 
week, that is Wednesday ; which yet was the practice of 
the ancients, as appears by what we find in Ignatius,** 
in Peterft bishop of Alexandria and a martyr, in Epi- 
phanius,|| Clemens Alexandrinus,§§ and others. 

By the same liberty have those vigils been abolished, 
which were ordinarily kept by the ancient Church, and 
both approved and defended also by St.Hierome, against 
Vigilantius, who found fault with them$|||| though his 

* Pseud. Just. Q. et R. Quaest. 115. 

t Tertul. 1. de Coron. milit. cap. 3. 

J Epiph. in Panar. in conclus. operis. 

§ Hieron. Dial, contr. Lucifer, p. 187, t. 2. 

|| Con. Nic. Can. 20. ^f Synod. Quinisex. Can. 90. 

** Ignat. Epist. 5. ff Petr. Alexand. in MS. 

%% Ttvi 8e oil cv l u7re$u)VYiTou ev 7rot<7t xXtjuxat Tr t g oiy.o\jix6vr,g on Terpag, xat 
7rpo(rct@!2<xTOv vt^tuol \gtiv lv rr\ ExxArjo-*a (vfurjuevY}. — Epiph. Panar, hcer. 
75. Aeriiy p. 910. §§ Clem. Alex. Strom. 1, 7, p. 317. 

HI De Vigiliis et pernoctationibus Marty rum ssepe celebrandis, &c. 
—•Hieron. I. cont. Vigil, p 163. 



324 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACNOWLEDGED 

opinion has now at length found more favour in the 
world than St. Hierome's. The same Father, in another 
place, delivers to us, for apostolical tradition, that cus- 
tom which they had in his time, of not suffering the 
people to depart out of the church, upon 'Easter-eve, 
till midnight was past.* What is now become of this 
custom, which was not only an ancient one, but was 
derived also from the Apostles themselves, if you dare 
believe St.Hierome ? 

We are informed, from several hands, that that com- 
mand of abstaining from blood, and from things strangled, 
was for a long time observed in the Church. And it 
appears evidently enough, that it was most rigidly kept 
in the primitive times, both from the testimony of Ter- 
tullianf and of Eusebius.J The council of Constantino- 
ple in Trullo excommunicates all those of the- laity, 
and deposes all those of the clergy, who shall offend 
herein. § And Pamelius, in his notes upon Tertullian's 
Apologetics } \\ informs us, that it is not long since that the 
observance of this custom was first laid aside among 
Christians ; it being not much above four hundred years 
since there were certain penalties appointed for those 
that should violate the same. Yet notwithstanding air 
its antiquity and universality, it is at length quite dis- 
used 5 the Church of Rome having very gently, and by 
little and little, laid it aside ; no one, that I know of, 
having taken the least notice either of the time when, 
or the manner how, it was done : only this we all see 
plain enough, that it is now entirely out of use. 

The same may be said of that custom of praying for 
tlie saints departed, which was clearly the practice of the 
ancients. u We pray (says Epiphanius) for the just, 
the Fathers, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, Apostles, 
Evangelists, Martyrs, &c, that we may distinguish the 
Lord Jesus Christ from the order of men, by that ho- 
nour which we pay unto him :" — Kcu yan Sucauay 7reiov- 

* Unde reor et traditionem apostolicam permansisse, ut in die 
Vigiliarum Pasche ante noctis dimidium populos dimittere non liceat, 
expectantes adventum Christi Id. Com, 4, in Mattk. />. 121. 

| Tertal. A.polog. p. 38. % Euseb. hist. Eccles. 1. 5, c. 2. 

§ Synod. Qninis. Can. 7. 

' T.el. in Apolog. Tertull. num. 3S. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 325 

fieOa 7K]V fjLvrjfJip', /cat vwEp tlov afxapTijjXwv, &c. vitEp Is 
Sikclilov, /cat iraTEpcov, /cat iza.Tpiapyjit)V, /cat 7rpo(prjTiov, /cat 
cnroffTokiOV , /cat EvayyEXiffTtov , Kai fiapTvptov, /cat . bfxoXo- 
yrjTOJV, €7ri(TK07r(i)v re, /cat aVay^ajp^rwv, /cat ttclvtoq tov 
TayfjiaTOQ, Iva tov livpiov Irjaovv Xptarov a^ootcwuej' ct7ro 

T7]Q TU)V dvdp(x)7Tlt)V Ta^EiOQ, Sid TT]Q 7TpOQ CLVTOV TLJJLr]£ } KCU 

aefiac. avrio aVo^a^te^, &c* 

We have also some of their prayers to this purpose 
yet remaining : as in the liturgy of St. James : 
M.vrjffdr}TL Kvpie Oeog twv wvEVfjaTcov, «cat 7ra<Tr)Q aapKog', tbv 
EfJLvrjddrjfiey, /cat wv ovk EjivqaQ^^xEVy opdocofov, aVo A(deX 
tov ^t/catov, ^XP l 77 ?£ GrjjJiepov ?7juepae/ clvtoq ekel civtovc 
dvc\7rav(Tov, ev X w P a £>ovto)v, ev ttj /^actXeta gov, &c.f 

In the Syriac liturgy of St. Basil, J after they had 
mentioned the Patriarchs, the Prophets, John Baptist, 
St. Stephen, the Virgin Mary, and all the rest of the 
saints, they at last added : " We daily send up our 
prayers and supplications unto thee for them." And a 
little after, " Lord, remember also (says the priest) all 
those who are departed this life, and the orthodox bi- 
shops, who have made a clear and open profession of 
the true faith, from the Apostles Peter and James^ to 
this day 3 of Ignatius, Dionysius," &c. And then he 
says with a loud voice, " Remember also, Lord, those 
who have persevered even to blood, for the word of a 
good fear." 

So likewise in the liturgy of St. Chrysostom ; " We 
offer unto thee this reasonable service, for all those who 
have departed in thy faith," &c. — f Ort Trpoa^EpofjiEv cot 

TY}V XoyiKTjV TCtVTTjV XctTpEldV VTTEp TLOV EV TTMJTEl CLVCnraV- 

OjJ.EVLOV 7rpo7raT£p(i)V, 7ra.TEpLov, ircLTOLapyuv, TzpocprjTtov, &C.§ 

Yet notwithstanding the Church of Rome has utterly 
abolished this custom, and without all question believes 
that you could not do the saints a greater injury, than 
now making any such supplications for them ; and those 
who are curious may observe many other similar differ- 

* Epiph. Pan. Hser. 75, Aerii, p. 911. 

f Liturg. Jacob, p. 29, adit. Par. an. 1560. apud Guliel. Morell. 

I Liturg. Syriac. Basil. 

§ See also Liturg. St. Marc. t. 2, Gr. Lat. Bibl. PP. p. 34. Twv & 

7ria-T£i XpiaTQ'j TTpoxenQifx^fisvwv iroLTfwj re kcci a%eh<p(vv tols vj/'jya^ ava- 
7rauco>, K'jfis, &C. ; — xa< toutwv 7ravroui> rag ^jyoig zvaTruvaov, $£F7T2Ta,&C. 



326 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

ences between the ancients and the Church of Rome, in 
their customs and ceremonies. 

As to their discipline also there is not less discrepancy. 
One of the chief of these differences, and which indeed 
is the origin of a great portion of the rest, is in the 
elections and ordinations of ecclesiastical ministers, which is 
the true basis and groundwork of the discipline and mi- 
nistry of the Church. 

It is clear that in the primitive times they depended 
partly on the people, and not wholly on the clergy 5 but 
every company of the faithful either chose their own 
pastors, or else had leave to consider and to approve of 
those that were proposed to them for that purpose. 
Pontius, a deacon of the Church of Carthage, says that 
" St. Cyprian, being yet a Neophyte, was elected to the 
charge of pastor, and the degree of bishop by the judg- 
ment of God, and the favour of the people. "* St. Cy- 
prian also tells us the same in several places. In his 
52nd epistle, speaking of Cornelius, he says, " That he 
was made bishop of Rome by the judgment of God, and 
of his Christ, by the testimony of the greatest part of 
the clergy, by the suffrage of the people who were there 
present, and by the college of pastors, or ancient bishops, 
all good and pious men.f" In another place he says, 
that "It is the people in whom the power chiefly is, of 
choosing worthy prelates, or refusing the unworthy. 
Which very thing (says he) we see is derived from di- 
vine authority, that a bishop is to be chosen in the pre- 
sence of all the people 5 and is declared either worthy or 
unworthy by the judgment and testimony of all ; + 
therefore (says he a little afterwards) ought men dili- 
gently to retain and observe, according to divine tra- 

* Judicio Dei, et plebis favore, ad officium Sacerdotii, et episco- 
pates gradum adhuc neophytus, ut putabatur, novellas electus est. 
— Pont. J) inc. it/ vita ('///>/-. 

t Factus est autem Cornelius episcopus, de Dei et Christi ejus 
judicio, de clericorum pene omnium testimonio, de plebis, qua? tunc 
affluit suffragio, et de Sacerdotum antiquoruin, et bonorum viroruin 
coUegio. — Cyjman. ep. 52, ;>. 97. 

X Quaudo ipsa (plebs) maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi 
dignos Sacerdotes, vel indignoi recusandi. Quod et ipsum videmus 
de divina auctoritate descendere, at Sacerdos plebe praesente sub 
omnium oculifl deligator, et dignus atque idoneus publico judicio M 
testimonio comprobetur. — Id. ep, 68, p, 106. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 327 

dition and apostolical custom, that which is also observed 
by us, and in a manner by all other provinces ; namely, 
that for the due and orderly proceeding in all ordinations, 
the neighbouring bishops of the same province are to 
meet together at that place, where a bishop is to be 
chosen 3 and the election of the said bishop is to be 
performed in the presence of the people of that place, 
who fully know every man's life, and by their long con- 
versation together, understand what their behaviour has 
been/'* 

Hence it was that Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, 
finding fault with many things in the ordination of 
Athanasius, accounted this also among the rest, that it 
had been performed without the consent of the people, t 
To which, answer was made by the council of Alexan- 
dria, X that the whole people of Alexandria had all with 
one voice desired him for their bishop, giving him the 
highest testimonies both for his piety and his fitness for 
undertaking that charge. 

In like manner Julius bishop of Rome, among other 
faults which he found in the ordination of Gregory, who 
had been made bishop of Alexandria, adds, " That he 
had not been desired by the people :" — Mrj alrrjOEvra 
7rapa 7rpe(r(3vT£pu)V, [dt] Trap" iTriGKoirwv, fit) irapa Xawv, &C§ 

It appears clear enough, both out of St. Hierome,|| 
and by the acts of the council of Constantinople,^ and of 
Chalcedon,** and also by the Pontificate Romanum,ff and 

* Propter quod diligenter de traditione divina, et Apostolica ob- 
servatione observandum est, et tenendum, quod apud nos quoque, 
et fere per provincias universas tenetur, ut ad ordinationes rite cele- 
brandas, ad earn plebem, cui propositus ordinatur, episcopi ejusdem 
provincial proximi qui que conveniant, et episcopus deligatur plebe 
prsesente, quae singulorum vitam plenissime novit, et uniuscujusque 
actum de ejus convsrsatione perspexerit — Ibid. p. 166. 

f Athan. Apol. 2, p. 726 B, et 727 D. % Ibid 726 C, 728 A. 

§ Julius ap. Athan. Apol. 2, p. 748,749. 

|| Hieron. 1. 1. adv. Jovin. p. 57, t. 2, et Com. 10, in Ezech. p 
968, t. 4, et Com. in Agg. p. 512, t. 5. et Com. 1, in Ep. ad Gal 
p. 271, t. 6. 

^ Cone. Const. 1, in Ep. ad Damas. p. 94 et 95, t. 1, Cone 
Gener. 

** Cone. Chalced. act 11, p. 375, t. 2. Cone. Gen. et act. 16, p 
430, &c. 

ft Pontine. Rom. in Ordinat. Presbyter, fol. 38, vide supr. L, l 

C. 4. 



328 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

several other productions, that this custom continued a 
long time in the Church. But it is now above seven 
hundred and eighty years since the Church of Rome or- 
dained, in the 8th council, (which notwithstanding has 
been always unanimously and constantly rejected by the 
Eastern Church to this very day), that the promotions 
and consecrations of bishops should be performed by 
the election and order of the college of bishops only, 
forbidding, upon pain of excommunication, i( all lay 
persons whatsoever, even princes themselves, to meddle 
in the election or promotion of any patriarch, metro- 
politan, or any. other bishop whatsoever;" declaring 
withal, " that it is not fit that lay persons should have 
anything at all to do in these matters : it becoming them 
rather to be quiet, and patiently to attend, till such 
time as the election of the bishop who is to be chosen 
be regularly finished by the college of clergymen/'* 

Thus have they, by this one cannon-shot, beaten down 
the authority of the Fathers, and of the primitive Church; 
who always allowed to the faithful people some share in 
the elections of their pastors, Neither has this custom 
been able ever since to lift up its head 3 the people 
being (as every man knows) now more than ever 
defrauded of this their right, and having not the least 
share in the elections, not merely of popes, primates, 
or archbishops, but not so much as of the meanest 
bishop that exists. 

As the people anciently had their voice in the election 
of their pastors ; so probably also they had the like in 
all other affairs of importance that took place in the 
Church. There happening in Cyprian's time a very 
great persecution, many who had been forced to yield 
by the cruelty of the Pagans, being afterwards touched 
with a sense of their fault, desired to return to the 
Church again; but yet to avoid the shame, and the 

* Neminem laicorum principum, vel potentuin semet inserere 
electioni vel promotion] Patriarchs, vel Metropolis, aut cujualibet 
episcopi, &c. pnescrtim cum nullam in talibus potestatem quenquam 
potestativornm, vel ceteromm laicorum habere conveniat, sed po- 
tius nlere, ac attendere sibi, usque quo regulariter a collegio ecclesirc 
luscipiat finem electio futuri pontincis.— Cone. 8. Con. 12, *. 3, Cone, 
p. a 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 329 

length and rigour of those penances, which were usually- 
imposed upon such offenders, the greatest part of them 
begged of their confessors to be favourably dealt with, 
and corrupted their priests, that so they might be re- 
ceived again into the communion of the Church, without 
undergoing canonical penance. St. Cyprian, who was a 
strict observer of discipline, wrote many things against 
this abuse ; by which it evidently appears, that the 
people had their right also in the hearing and judging of 
these causes. For in his tenth epistle he says, that 
those priests that had received any such offenders rashly, 
and contrary to the discipline of the Church, " should 
give an account of what they had done to himself, to the 
confessors, and to the whole people."* In another 
place, writing to the people of Carthage, "When the 
Lord (says he) shall have restored peace unto us all, 
and w T e shall have all returned to the Church again, we 
shall then examine all these things, (praesentibus vobis, 
et judicantibus, — you also being present, and judging of 
them.)"f It is in the same epistle, and on this very point, 
where he adds that passage, which we have before pro- 
duced, in the chapter on the corruption of the writings of 
the ancients. " I desire them (says he) that they would 
patiently hear our council, &c, to the end that, when 
many of us bishops shall have met together, we may 
examine the letters and desires of the blessed martyrs, 
according to the discipline of the Lord, and in the pre- 
sence of the confessors, and also according as you shall 
think fit." Hence it is, that in one of his former 
epistles, he protested to his clergy, iC That from his first 
coming to his bishopric he had ever resolved to do 
nothing of his own head, without their advice, and the 
approbation of his people." J He who would yet be 
more fully satisfied in this particular, may read the 

* Acturi et apud nos, et apud confessores ipsos, et apud ple- 
bem universam causam suam Cyprian, ep. 10. ;;. 30. 

f Cum pace nobis omnibus a Domino prius data, ad ecclesiam 
regredi caeperimus, tunc examinabuntur singula, praesentibus et judi- 
cantibus vobis. — Td. ep. 12. ;;. 33. 

X Quando a primordio Episcopatus mei statuerim, nihil sine con- 

silio vestro, et sine consensu plebis meae, privata sententia gerere 

Cypr. ep. 6. p. 19. 



330 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

fourteenth epistle of the same Father, and the twenty- 
eighth on the business of Philumenus and Fortunatus, 
two subdeacons ; as also the fortieth on the business of 
Felicissimus : and the sixty-seventh, which he wrote to 
the clergy and the people of Spain jointly, commending 
them for having deposed their bishops, who were guilty 
of heinous crimes.* 

But that no man may think that this was the practice 
of the Church of Carthage only, I shall here take the 
opportunity of informing the reader, that the clergy of 
Rome also approved of this resolution of his, of bring- 
ing to trial, so soon as they should be at rest, this whole 
business, on those who had fallen during the persecu- 
tion, in a full assembly of the bishops, priests, deacons, 
and confessors, together with those of the laity who 
had continued constant, and had not yielded to idolatry f. 
And that which, in my judgment, is very well worth our 
observation, is, that St. Cyprian himself, writing to Cor- 
nelius bishop of Rome, says, M that he does not doubt 
but that, according to that mutual love which they 
owed and paid to each other, he always read those 
letters which he received from him to the most eminent 
clergy of Rome who were his assistants, and to the 
most holy and most numerous people." :{ Whence it 
appears, that at Rome also the people had their vote in 
the managing of ecclesiastical affairs. 

I shall not need here to add any more, to show how 
much the authority and example of the ancients in this 
particular are now slighted and despised : it being evi- 
dent enough to every man, that the people are not only 

* Quae Scripta est nomine 66 episcoporum : et ep. 68, et in 
praefat. Concil. Carthag. — Id. ep. 14, et 28. et 40. et 59. 

f Quanquara nobis in tarn ingenti negotio placeat, quod et tu ipse 
tractasti prius, ecclesiae pacem sustinendam, deinde sic collatione 
consiliorum cum episcopis, presbyteris, diaconis, confessoribus, 
pariter ac stantibus laicis facta, lapsorum tractare rationem — Epist. 
quce est inter Cypr. ep. 31. 

% Quanquam sciam, frater charissime, pro mutual dilectione quam 
debemus et cxhibemus invicem nobis, florentissimo ill ic Clero tecum 
president i, et sanctissimae atque amplissimae plebi legere te semper 
litteras nostras ; tamen nunc et adrnoneo et peto, ut quod alias 
sponte atque honorifice facis, etiam petente me facias, ut hac epistola 
mea lecta, &c. — Cypr, ep. 55. ad Cornel, p. 121. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 331 

excluded from the councils and consistories of the 
bishops, but that, besides, the man would now be taken 
for a heretic who should now only propose, or attempt 
to restore, any such thing. But I beseech you now, only 
fancy to yourselves an archbishop, who, writing to the 
Pope, should say unto him thus : " Most dear brother, I 
exhort you, and desire of you, that what you are wont 
honourably to do of your own accord, you must now do 
it at my request : namely, that this my epistle may be 
read to the distinguished clergy who are your assistants 
there ; and also the most holy and most numerous 
people." Would not the writer, think you, of such a 
letter as this, be laughed at as a senseless, foolish fellow ; 
if at least he escaped so easily, and met with no worse 
usage ? Yet, notwithstanding, this is the very request 
that St. Cyprian made to Pope Cornelius. 

As the bishops and the rest of the clergy have de- 
prived the people of all those privileges which had been 
conferred upon them by antiquity, as well in the elec- 
tion of prelates, as in other ecclesiastical affairs ; in like 
manner is it evident, that the Pope has engrossed into 
his own hands, not only this booty of which they had 
robbed the people, but also in a manner all the rest of 
their authority and power; as well that which they 
heretofore enjoyed, according to the ancient canons 
and constitutions of the Church, as that which they 
have since, by various admirable means, by little and 
little acquired, in the space of some centuries. All this 
has now entirely disappeared, I know not how, and been 
swallowed up by Rome in a very little time. 

The three hundred and eighteen Fathers of the council 
of Nice ordained, "That every bishop should be created 
by all the bishops of that province, if it were possible : 
or at least by three of them, if the whole number could 
not so conveniently be brought together : yet with this 
proviso, that the absent bishops were consenting also to 
the said ordination : and that the power and authority 
in all such actions should belong to the metropolitan of 
each several province :" — ^tzlukottov irpocriKEL fxaXtrrra 
fjiev vtto 7rav7wy Twv iv eVao^c^ KadiffTaaOat, &c* 

* Cone. Nic. Can. 4. 



339 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

This ordinance of theirs is both very agreeable to the 
practice of the preceding ages, as appears by that sixty- 
eighth epistle of St. Cyprian, which we cited a little 
before, and was also observed for a long time afterward 
by the ages following ; as you may perceive by the 
epistle of the Fathers of the first council of Constanti- 
nople to Pope Damasus ;* and also by the discourse of 
those that sat as presidents at the council of Chalcedon, 
on the rights of the patriarch of Constantinople in his 
own diocese. 

Notwithstanding all these things, the whole world 
knows and sees what is the practice of the Church of 
Rome at this day, and that there is not any true power 
or authority left to the metropolitans and their councils, 
in the ordinations of the bishops within their own 
dioceses : but the whole power, in this case, depends on 
the Church of Rome, and on those whom it has entrust- 
ed herein, either with their own liking or otherwise. 
Indeed all bishops are to make their acknowledgments 
of tenure to the Pope ; nor may they exercise their 
functions without his commission -, which they shall not 
obtain, without first paying down their money, and 
compounding for their first fruits, styling themselves 
also in their titles thus : — " We N. Bishop of N. by the 
grace of God, and of the apostolical see," of which 
strange custom and title you will not meet with the least 
trace throughout all the records of antiquity ; not so 
much as one of all that vast number of bishops, whose 
subscriptions we have yet remaining, partly in the 
councils, and partly in their own books and histories, 
having ever thus styled himself. 

As for Provincial and Diocesan Synods, where anciently 
all sorts of Ecclesiastical causes were heard and deter- 
mined ; as appears both by the canons of the councils, 
and also by the examples we have left us ; as in the 
history of Arius, and of Eutyches, who were both ana- 
thematized ; the one in the synod of Alexandria, and 
the other in that of Constantinople ; they dare not now 
meddle with anything, except some trivial matters, 
being of no use in the greater causes, save only to in- 

* Cone. Const. I. in Ep. ad Damas. p. 94. t. 1. Cone. Gener. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 333 

quire into them, and give in their information at Rome.* 
Nor can the meanest bishop be judged in any case of 
importance, which may be sufficient to depose him by 
any but the Pope of Rome : his metropolitan and his 
primate, the synod of his province, and that of his 
diocese, (in the sense that the ancients took this word), 
having not the least power in these matters, unless it 
be by an extraordinary delegation ; and having then 
only authority to draw up the business, and make it ready 
for hearing, and then to send it to Rome : none but the 
Pope alone having power to give sentence in such cases, 
as it is expressly ordained by the council of Trent.f 

I shall here pass by their taking away from the 
bishops, contrary to the canons and practice of antiquity, 
all jurisdiction and power over a good part of the 
monasteries, and other companies of religious persons, 
both seculars and regulars, within their dioceses ; 
their assuming wholly to themselves the power of ab- 
solving and of dispensing in several cases, which they 
call reserved cases, (though in ancient times this autho- 
rity belonged equally to all bishops) ; and also their 
giving indulgences, and proclaiming jubilees ; things which 
were never heard of,4n any of the first ages of Christi- 
anity. 

As for the discipline which w T as anciently observed in 
the Church towards Penitentiaries, whether in punish- 
ing them for their offences, or else in the receiving them 
again into the communion of the Church, it is now 
wholly lost and vanished. We have now nothing left 
us, save only a bare idea and shadow of it, which we 
meet with in the writings of the ancients ; in the 
canonical epistles of Gregorius Neocaesarensis, of St. 
Basil, and others, and in the councils, both general and 
provincial. 

Where are now all those several degrees of penance, 
which were observed in the ancient Church : where 

* Minores criminales causae episcoporum in concilio tantum pro- 
vincial! cognoscantur et terminentur, &c. — Cone. Trid. Sess. 24. 
Decret. de ref. c. 5. 

f Causae criminales graviores contra episcopos, &c. quae depositione 
aut privatione dignae sunt, ab ipso tantum summo Romano pontifice 
cognoscantur, et terminentur, &c. — Ibid. 



334 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

some offenders were to bewail their sins without the 
Church ; some might stand and hear the word among 
the catechumeni ; others were to cast themselves down 
at the feet of the faithful. Some of them might partake 
of the prayers only of the Church ; and others were at 
length received again into the communion of their sacra- 
ments also ? Where are those eight, those ten, those 
twenty years of penance, which they sometimes imposed 
upon offenders ? All this whole course of penance, 
some kind of account of which we meet with in the 
writings of the ancients, is now wholly merged in auri- 
cular confession, wherein no part of the penance ap- 
pears to the world. 

As these kinds of punishments, which were most 
wholesome for the penitentiaries, have been quite abo- 
lished by them ; so have they on the other side intro- 
duced other kinds of penalties, which are indeed very 
beneficial and advantageous to the temporal estate of the 
Church of Rome, but are most pernicious for the souls 
of offenders ; such as their interdictions, when, for the 
offence (and that oftentimes too, rather a pretended 
then a true one) of one or two sing]e persons, or 
perhaps of a corporation, they will excommunicate a 
whole state, wherein there are perhaps many millions 
of people ; depriving them of the benefit of partaking of 
the holy sacraments ; which are the means by which the 
grace and the life of Jesus Christ is communicated unto 
poor mortals : an example of which kind of proceeding 
I remember to have been practised by them, since my 
time, against the state of Venice. In what code of the 
ancient Church can you discover where any such strange 
kind of punishment was ever instituted, as that, for the 
offence of a few, many millions of souls being damned ? 
How can you call that power apostolical, which pu- 
nishes in this manner ; seeing that the apostolical 
power was given for edification, and not for de- 
struction ? 

I would also wish to learn of any man, that could tell 
me, upon what canons of the ancient Church that san- 
guinary discipline of the Inquisition is grounded ; where 
(after they have extracted from a poor soul, by crafty 
dealing, and many times also by such barbarous usage 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 335 

as would make one tremble to read, a confession of his 
being guilty of heresy) instead of instruction, they pass 
upon him sentence of death, and he is forthwith de- 
livered over to the secular magistrates : to whom not- 
withstanding, in plain mockery both of God and man, 
they give an express charge, that they do not put him 
to death.* Yet in case they fail of so doing, and if 
within six or seven days after at the most, they do not 
burn him alive,f (and all this without ever hearing his 
cause or what his offence is.) J they themselves shall be 
prosecuted by ecclesiastical censures, and shall be ex- 
communicated, deposed, and deprived of all dignities 
both ecclesiastical and temporal. 

That which yet surpasses all belief is, that although 
the person questioned should confess his fault, and 
should express his hearty sorrow for it, and should by 
way of satisfaction submit himself to the severest penance 
that could be j yet would not the poor wretch escape 
death, if he be of the number of those whom they call 
the relapsed. § 

O most inhuman cruelty ! and worthy of the Scy- 
thians, and the M^rganians only ! but very ill becoming 
the disciples of him who commanded his apostle to 
pardon his brother, not seven times only, but seventy 
times seven: and as ill beseeming those who so highly 
boast of being the successors and inheritors of those 
mild and tender-hearted ancients, who taught, " That 
it is the part of piety not to constrain but to persuade, 
according to our Saviour's example, who constrained 
no man, but left every man to his own liberty, to follow 
him or not. . . . And that the devil, as he has no truth in 
him, comes with axes and with hammers to break open 
the doors of those that must receive him. But our 
Saviour is so meek, that his manner of teaching is, ' If 
any one will follow me :' and * He that will be my dis- 

* Nicol. Eymeric. Director. Inquis. p. 2. c. 27. p. 127. et ibi 
Pegna. item p. 3. p. 512. 

t Pegna in Direct. Inquis. p. 3. q. 36. 

j Direct. Inquis. p. 3. Q. 36. et ibid. Pegna, p. 563. Comm. 85. 
p 564. 

§ Direct. Inquis. p. 3. modo 9. termin. process, p. 510. et ibi 
Pegna. 



336 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

ciple :' neither does he constrain any one to whom he 
comes, but rather stands at the door of every one, and 
knocks, saying, ' Open to me, my sister, my spouse/ 
and so enters, when any open to him : but if they 
delay, and will not open to him, he then departs ; be- 
cause the truth is not to be pressed with swords and 
arrows, nor with soldiers and armed men, but by per- 
suasion and council :" — Qeocrefjetag jiev yap iSiov firj amy- 
/ca£etj', dXXa Tretdeiy, /cat yap 6 Kvpiog avrog ov fiiaZojiEvog, 
dXXa tyj 7rpoaip£(j£L Zicovg iXeye 7ra<7t jjlev, el rig OeXel otthtu) 

/jlov eXOelv, &C O \xev SiafjoXog ettel fjrjSev dXrjdeg lyEi, 

iv tteXekel /cat Xat^EVTrjptip £7ri{3aiviov /careaijet rag dvpag tljv 
hEypiiEvwv avTOV 6 ()£ HiOTrjp ovTiog ecttl 7rpaog f wg SiSaffKEiv 
\xev, el rig SeXel c7Tt(7U) fjLov eXOeiv, /cat 6 OeXidv tlvai JJ.OV 
fJLadrjrrjg' kpyoyLEvov ce irpog 1/caorov, fjirj /3ta£ecrr3at, a\\a 
fiaXXov Kpovitv te, /cat XEyEiv, avod.ov fioi> a^EXcprj fxov 
vvfjaprj' /cat avoiyovTijJV jiev £t<rep)(erai, okvovvtwv $e, /cat fir) 
SeXovtiov ekelviov, dvaywpEi. 'Ov yap ^KpEaiv, t] JjeXegiv, rj 
$ia (j-pariiOTwr, &c* 

Athanasius also sharply reprehended the Arians, for 
going about to establish and maintain their religion by 
force ; saying, " Of whom have they«learnt to persecute 
their brethren ? Certainly they cannot say that they 
have learnt it of the saints : no, they have rather had the 
devil for their tutor herein/' And again : " Jesus Christ 
has commanded us to fly, and the saints have indeed 
fled sometimes : but persecution is the invention of the 
devil :" — WoBev EfxaOov avrot to Sookelv^ cnro \xev yap tojv 
uyaov ovk av elwolev' cnro Ie tov diafloXov tovto avroig ■ 

7rEpLEiXr)77Tai, &c Kat to jjlev (j)EvyEiv 6 Kvpiog irpoGETafe, 

Kat ol ayioi f.cpvyov to Se SiwKEiy diafioXtKov e'ort iinyEip^jxa, 
/cat KaTajravTtov avTog aiTEi tovto. f 

In another place they protest, that " By that very 
course which the Arians took in banishing (which yet 
is much less than burning,) all those who would not 
subscribe to their decrees, they clearly showed them- 
selves to be contrary to all Christians, and to be the 
friends of the devil and his fiends :" — Ot ovtio ypa<povT£g, 
cb(TT£ to TEXog Ttov ypafifxaTiov avTiov EZopiofjiov, Kat dXXag 

* Athan in Ep. ad solit. vit. ag. torn. 1, p. 55. 
f Athan. Apol. 1. de fuga sua, p. 716. Ton. 1. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 337 

TifKopiag exelv, n av elev ol towvtol ; ol xptartavw ^y 
dWorpioi, hajooXov $e, kccl twv eKtivov Saifjiovuv (j)t\oi.* 

In like manner has another of the ancient Fathers 
exclaimed against the proceeding of these Arians, who 
made use not only of the terror of persecution, but of 
the enticements also of worldly riches, that thus they 
might the more easily draw men over to their belief. 
"But now, alas! (says this Father) these are the suffrages 
that recommend the faith in God : Christ is now be- 
come weak and void of power, and ambition gains 
credit to his name. The Church terrifies by banishment 
and imprisonments, &c. She, that was consecrated by 
the terror of her persecutors, depends now upon the 
dignity of those who are of her communion. She who 
has been propagated by banished priests, now her- 
self banishes priests. She boasts now that she is be- 
loved of the world,— who could not be Christ's, unless 
the world hated her/'t Agreeable to what another of 
them says, " That the Church of Christ was found- 
ed by shedding blood, and by suffering reproaches 
rather than by reproaching others : and that it has 
grown up by persecutions, and has been crowned by 
martyrdoms.''^ 

Another also of the chief among the ancient Fathers 
reproached an Arian for having made use of the sword 
and axe in ecclesiastical matters. "Those whom he 
could not deceive by his discourse, (says he) he thought 
proper to use his sword against; uttering with his 
mouth, and writing with his hands, sanguinary laws : and 
thinking that a law can command men's faith." § And 

* Athan. contr. Arian. Or, 1. t. 1. p. 288. 

t At nunc, proh dolor ! divinam fidem suffragia terrena recommen- 
dant, mopsque virtutis suae Christus, dum ambitio nomini suo conci- 
hatur, arguitur. Terret exiliis et carceribus Ecclesia, credique sibi 
cogit, quae exiliis et carceribus est credita. Pendet ad dignationem 
| communicantium, quae persequentium est consecrata terrore. Fugat 
sacerdotes, quae fugatis est sacerdotibus propagata. Diligi se glo- 
natur a mundo, quae Christi esse non potuit, nisi earn mundus 
odisset — Hilar. I. contr. Aux. p. 86. 

: Fundendo sanguinem, etpatiendo magis quam faciendo colu- 
mellas, Christi fundata est ecclesia, persecutionibuscrevit, martyriis 
coronata est.— Hieron. ep. 62. ad Tlieoph. t. 2. p. 274. 

Qui (Auxentius) quos non potuerit sermone decipere, eos 

Q 



338 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

that you may not imagine that he himself thought that 
lawful which he found fault with in the Arians, he says, 
in another place, that in a certain journey which he made 
into Gallia, he refused to communicate with those bishops 
who would have some certain heretics to be put to 
death.* 

The emperor Marcianus, in like manner, who called 
together the council of Chalcedon, and was a prince 
that was highly commended for his piety, solemnly pro- 
tests that " he had forced no man to subscribe, or to as- 
sent to the council of Chalcedon, against his will. For, 
(says he) we will not draw any man into the way of life 
by violence or by threats :" — Kairj \xev fj/jterepa yaXrivoTr)Q 
ovSevi to gvvoXqv drayKTjV ETrayd-qvcu. 7rpo(Tern^ev, ware rj 
v7roypa(j)ELV, 7) (TvvaiVELv, el ov fjovXotro ov$e yap aTTEtXaig, 
rj fita. rtva izpoq ty\v ttjq dXrjdeiaQ ocov eXkelv /3ov\ojU£0a.t 
Indeed Hosius, bishop of Corduba, long before testified 
that the most Catholic emperor Constans never com- 
pelled any man to be orthodox : — Ti yap tolovtov yEyove 
irapa KiovaravTOQ.X And this is the course which is ap- 
proved of by all the ancients. " God (says St. Hilary) 
has rather taught us the knowledge of himself, than ex- 
acted it of us : and authorising his commandments by 
the wonderfulness of his heavenly works, he has refused 
to force us to confess his name, &c. He is the God of 
the whole world : he has no need of a compelled obe- 
dience ; he requires not any forced confession. "$ These 
are the reasons this author brought to dissuade the 

gladio putat esse feriendos ; cruentas leges ore dictans, manu scri- 
bens.; et putans quod lex fidem possit hominibus imperare. — Am- 
bros. ep. 32, /. 3, 126. 

* Postea cum videret me abstinere ab episcopis qui communica- 
bant ei, vel qui aliquos devios, licet a fide, ad necem petebant, &c. 
— Ambros. I. 2, 27 \t. p. 106. 

f Marcian. ep. ad Arcbimandr. et Mon. JEg. in Act. Cone. 
Cbalced. t. 2, Cone. gen. p. 453. 

| Hujus ep. ad Constantium, apud Athan. in ep. ad solit. vit. ag. 
t. 1, p. 839. 

§ Deus cognitionem sui docuit potiiis, quam exegit ; et opera- 
tionum coelestium admiratione proeceptis suis concilians auctorita- 
tem, coactam confitendi se aspernatus est voluntatem, &c. Deus 
universitatis est ; obsequio non eget necessario : non requirit coac- 
tam confessionem. — Hilar. I. 1, ad Const, fol. 84. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 339 

emperor Constantius from using violence, and forcing 
the consciences of men. 

St. Ambrose says, " Christ sent his Apostles to plant 
the faith ; not that they should compel, but that they 
should instruct men ; not that they should exercise 
the force of power, but that they should promote the 
doctrine of humility."* Hence that which St. Cyprian 
has observed, when comparing the manner of proceed- 
ing in the Old Testament with that of the New : "Then 
(says he) the proud and the disobedient were cut off by 
the fleshly sword ; now they suffer by the spiritual, 
being thrown out of the Church.^f 

Certainly then they still live, at this very day, under 
the Old Testament in Spain, and Italy, and all those 
other places where the Inquisition is in force ; and, I 
believe, he would find a very difficult task of it, whoever 
should take it in hand to reconcile this passage of St. 
Cyprian to that opinion of Pope Pius Y.,% who said that 
bishops might have their officers and executioners of 
justice, for the causes that appertained to their juris- 
diction j and might put their sentences in execution 
against offenders ; and that the reason of their having 
recourse upon all occasions to the secular powers, was 
not because the Church could not make use of its own 
proper officers of justice in such cases, but rather be- 
cause it had no such -, or if it had, they were so weak, 
and so few in number, that for the suppressing and 
punishing of delinquents, it would stand in need of the 
assistance of the temporal power. 

I shall conclude this subject with Tertullian, the most 
ancient author of the Latin Church, whom Pamelius 
(as we have noticed before) will have us to believe to 
have been a persecutor of heretics; he yet was a man 

* Eos misit ad seminandam fidem, qui non cogerent, sed docerent, 
nee vim potestatis exercerent, sed doctrinam humilitatis attollerent. 
— Ambros. Com. in Luc. I. 7, p. 99. 

f Tunc quidem gladio occidebantur, quando adhuc et circumcisio 
carnalis manebat. Nunc autem, &c. spirituali gladio superbi et 
contumaces necantur, dum de ecclesia ejiciuntur. — Cyprian, ep. 62, 
p. 143. 

% Girolamo, Catena nella vita di Pio V. p. 126. 

Q 2 



340 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

that would not allow a Christian so much as to draw a 
sword, neither in war against a public enemy, nor in dis- 
charging the office of a magistrate upon offenders whom 
all civil laws punish with death. Let us now therefore 
see what he says on religion. " Consider (says he to 
the Pagans) whether this be not to add to the crime of 
irreligion, to take away the liberty of religion, and to 
interdict a man the choice of his God, by not suffering 
him to worship whom he would, but to compel him to 
w r orship whom he would not. There is none, no not 
among men, that takes pleasure in being served by any 
against their will."* Some few chapters afterwards he 
says, " It seems very unjust that freemen should be con- 
strained to do sacrifice against their will. For, in the per- 
forming of service to God, a willing heart is required."f 
In another book, when speaking of the same thing, he 
says : " It is a point of human right, and a natural 
power that every man has to worship that which he 
thinks fit. The religion of another man neither hurts 
nor profits any one. Neither is it indeed the part of 
religion to compel religion ; which ought to be enter- 
tained willingly, and not by force ; inasmuch as sacrifices 
themselves are required only from willing minds." J 

On this passage Pamelius gives us a marvellously rare 
gloss, saying, " That we ought not indeed directly com- 
pel men to our religion, but yet we may punish them, 
if they will not change their opinion." Certainly he 
thinks it is not compelling a man, to compel him to do 
a thing under pain of death. Let any man that can, 



* Videte enim ne et hoc ad irreligiositatis elogium concurrat 
adimere libertatem religionis, et interdicere optionem divinitatis, ut 
non liceat mihi colere quern velim, sed cogar colere quern nolim. 
Nemo se ab invito coli vellet, ne homo quidem. — Tertull. Apolog. 
c. 24, p. 58. 

f Quoniam autem facile iniquum videtur, liberos homines invitos 
urgeri ad sacrincandum. Nam et alias divime rei faciendae libens 
animus inducitur. — Id. Apolog. c. 28, />. 61. 

\ Tamen humani juris, et naturalis potestatis est, unicuique 
quod putaverit colere : nee alii abest, aut prodest alterius religio. 
Sed nee religionis est cogere religione, quae sponte suscipi debeat, 
non vi ; cum et hostiee ab animo libenti expostulentur. — Id. I. ad 
Scapul. c 2. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 341 

reconcile the practice of the Inquisition, and the Pope's 
thunderbolt against king Henry VIII. and his daughter 
queen Elizabeth, and against some of the kings of France 
also, to this constant opinion of all antiquity. 

Now after the Romanists have thus boldly slighted 
the doctrines, the ceremonies, and the discipline of the 
ancients, by changing and abolishing whatever they 
have thought good ; with what confidence can they still 
laud the Fathers, and adduce their testimonies, and place 
them upon the seat of judicature, and make them the 
judges of our differences ? Or although they still do 
thus, who would not be ready here to bring against them 
those words of Tertullian, which he made use of in ano- 
ther similar case ? " I would be very glad (says he) 
that these great and religious defenders and maintainers 
of the laws and customs of their fathers, would answer 
me a little as to their own faith, respect, and obedience, 
toward the constitutions of their ancestors ; whether 
they have not departed from and forsaken some of 
them ? whether they have not rased out those things 
which were most necessary and most useful in their 
science ? what has become of those ancient laws ? &c. 
where is the religion ! where is the reverence which is 
due from you to your ancestors ? you have renounced 
your forefathers, in your habit, apparel, manner of life, 
opinion, and also in your very speech. You are always 
lauding up antiquity, yet every day you assume a new 
manner of life."* 

Whether therefore they of the Church of Rome have 
upon just grounds dealt thus with the ancients or not, 
it answers my purpose notwithstanding to conclude, 
that by this their proceeding they have given us a suffi- 
cient testimony that they do not account their authority 



* Nunc religiosissimi legum, et paternorum institutorum protec- 
tores et ultores respondeant velim de sua fide, et honore, et obsequio 
erga majorum consulta, si a nullo disciverunt ? si in nullo exorbita- 
verunt ? si non necessaria et aptissima quseque discipline oblittera- 

verunt ? Quonam illae leges abierunt, &c Ubi religio ? ubi vene- 

ratio majoribus debita a vobis ? Habitu, victu, instructu, sensu 
ipso denique sermone proavis renunciastis : laudatis semper antiqui- 
tatem, et nove de die vivitis. — Id. Apol. c. 6, />. 31, 33. 



342 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

supreme in matters of religion. And if so, what reason 
have they to urge it for such, against the Protestants ? 
Seeing they have weakened the authority of so many of 
those judgments, on points of religion, which have been 
given by the Fathers, how can they expect that their 
authority should pass for authentic in any one ? Let 
us suppose, for instance, that they held that there was 
such a place a Purgatory. But by your favour (will 
the Protestant say), if you have found their belief to be 
so erroneous, on the state of the souls of departed 
Saints, till the day of the resurrection ; why would you 
impose upon me a necessity of subscribing to w T hat they 
held on Purgatory? The laws of controversy ought 
to be- equal ; and therefore if you, by examining this 
opinion of the Fathers by reason and by the Scriptures, 
have found it to be erroneous, why will you not give us 
leave to try that other on Purgatory, by the same touch- 
stone ? Certainly, should we but speak the truth, it is 
the plainest mockery that can be, to cry out, as these men 
do continually, " The Fathers, the Fathers," and to 
write so many volumes upon this subject, after they 
have so dealt with them as you have seen. 

If it be here objected that the Protestants themselves 
do also reject many of those Articles, which we have 
before noticed ; we answer, that this is nothing at all to 
the purpose ; forasmuch as they take the Scriptures, and 
not the Fathers, for the rule of their faith ; neither do 
they press any man to receive any thing from the hands of 
the ancients, unless it be grounded upon the word of God. 
If, lastly, you say that the authority of the Fathers has 
no place, nor is at all considerable, in the points before 
set down, because the Church has otherwise determined 
on the same : this is clearly to grant us that which we 
would have, namely, that the authority of the Fathers 
is not supreme. As for the Church, that is to say how 
far its authority extends in these things, that is a new 
question which I shall not meddle with at this time. 
Only thus much I shall say, that whatever authority 
you allow it, whether little or much, you will still find 
that it will very hardly be able to do anything, on the 
decision of our present controversies; forasmuch as you 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 343 

can never be able to make any use of this position, till 
such times as you are assured of what and where the 
Church is 5 seeing that the Protestants strenuously deny 
that it is that which appears at this day at Rome 5 and 
the greatest difficulty of all consisting in demonstrating 
this unto them. For if they did but once believe that 
the Church of Rome was the true Church, they would 
immediately join themselves with it ; so that there would 
not henceforth be need of any further dispute. 

We shall therefore here conclude, that adducing the 
testimonies of the Fathers on the differences that are at 
this day in religion, is no proper mode for the deciding 
them, seeing that it is no easy matter to discover what their 
judgment has been respecting the same, by reason of 
the many difficulties we meet with, in the writings of 
the ancients ; neither is it of such sufficient authority in 
itself, as that we may safely establish our belief upon it, 
since the Fathers themselves have been also subject to 
error. Neither, lastly, is it of any force, either against 
the one or the other party j seeing that they both regulate 
and examine the opinions, ceremonies, and discipline of 
the ancients, the one by the rule of the Scriptures, and 
the other by that of the Church. 

Here I find, that upon this conclusion two questions 
may arise. For seeing that adducing the Fathers is not 
sufficient for the deciding of those points that are now 
in dispute amongst us, it may be asked, in the first 
place, what other course we ought to take for attaining 
the truth in these controversies -, and then, secondly, 
how and in what cases the writings of the Fathers may 
be useful to us. Now, although both these questions are 
without the compass of our present design, yet notwith- 
standing, as they so closely border upon it, we shall, in 
the last place, say a word a two in answer to them. 

As for the first, it would be a difficult matter, in my 
judgment, to discover a better way for satisfaction on 
this point, than that which one Scholarius, a Greek, 
who is very highly esteemed by those who printed the 
general councils at Rome, has proposed. This learned 
man, in a certain oration of his, which he made at the 
council of Florence, for the facilitating the union which 



344 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

was then in treaty between the Latins and the Greeks, 
and was afterwards concluded, lays it down as a basis, 
" That we ought not to reject all those things, which are 
not clearly, and in express terms, delivered in the Scrip- 
tures ; which is a pretext and evasion which many of the 
heretics make use of: but that we ought to receive with 
equal honour whatsoever directly follows from that 
which is said in the Scriptures j and to reject utterly 
whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to those things 
which are undoubtedly true." He says further, that 
u In those things wherein the Scripture has not clearly 
expressed itself, we must have recourse to the Scripture 
itself, as our guide, to give us light therein, by some 
other passage, where it has spoken more plainly.' ' And 
after all this he requires, "That we should use our 
utmost endeavour fully to reconcile those seeming con- 
tradictions, which we sometimes here meet with in 
several passages ; to that purpose taking notice of the 
diversity of times, customs, senses, and the like :" — Kat 
irpLOTafiEV fjtrj ttclvtcl JjovXeltOcll Sicjpprjdrjy Xclji(dclvelv ek 
tt)q ypatprjg* tovto) yap kcll 7roXXovg \o\iev tlov alperLZiov 
yp-qaafxevovq tco TrpoKaXvfXjxaTL* a\\' av ri tolq ovtlo Xeyo- 

jXEVOLg ClKoXovOoP 77, K'CU TOVTO TTJQ l(Tr]Q TLJJLTjg Ci^LOVV' LOGCLVTLOg 

el tl toiq clXyjOegl, mi dvavTipprjToig evavTiovfievov tyaivotTO, 
tovto fjLrj^eva 7rapacEyzodaL Tpoirov. 'ETretra tlov \xr\ natpLog 
eiprjjJiEvojp, avTr)v ttjv ypatprjv XafifiavELv SiSacrKaXov, it, lov 
dXXodt 7rov aatyEGTEpov TrpayjxaTEVETaC 7rpog 3e tovtolq 
tt)v Sokovltclv SicupLOVLav ikvyovfjiErovg Xvelv TTEipacrdai, Kaipovg 
re, kcll yjpELae, KCLi c^La(j)opovg ivvoLagj kcll ra tolclvtcl 7rapa- 
XajJi(ocLVOVTCLg.* 

Proceeding further, Scholarius says, " That the Fathers 
of the council of Nice after this manner concluded by 
the Scriptures upon the true belief touching the Son of 
God."t Then applying all this to his present purpose, 
he adds, " That the Scripture says clearly and expressly 
that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father : and that 
this is agreed upon by both sides, both by the Greeks 
and the Latins :" — To jjlev ovv, ek tov izaTpog EK7ropEVEa6ai 

Scholar. Orat. 3, t. 4. Cone. Gen. p. 650. 
f Ibid. j). G52et653. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 345 

to TTvev/jia to ayiov, keitcu jjlev $iappr)Sr) ev ttj ypatyr), bjiu- 
XoyetTai Ce irapa 7ravT(ov rfjuwr, &c* 

But that, as Scripture has not so expressly declared 
itself, whether the Holy Ghost proceed also from the 
Son or not, and as this is the thing now in question^ the 
Latins affirming it, and the Greeks on the other side 
denying it, he says : " We ought therefore to prove 
this from some other parts, which are there more clearly 
delivered :" — Ovk ovv ek tiviov dWiov tovto vvvayEadcu 

8c«, (pClVEplOQ EKEL \EyOJJEV(t)V.-f 

This he afterwards performs, and indeed, in my judg- 
ment, very learnedly and happily 5 proving this doubtful 
point out of other passages that are more clear. And 
this was the judgment of this great person 5 which will 
not give any offence to those of the Church of Rome, 
because it came from one that was on their side. Nei- 
ther do I see what could have been spoken more ra- 
tionally. And indeed this is the course that is observed 
in all sciences whatever. 

If thy adversary doubt of the truth of what thou 
proposest, thou art to prove it by such maxims as are 
acknowledged and allowed of by him, making good 
that which is doubtful b)r that which is certain, and 
clearing that which is obscure by that which is evident. 
This is the rule that I conceive we ought to abide by, 
in the disputes that are among us at this day. The word 
of God is our common book ; let us therefore search 
into it, for that upon which we may ground our own 
belief; and by which we may overthrow the opinion of 
our adversary. As for example, it is there said clearly 
and expressly, that that which our Saviour Christ took 
at his last supper, was bread : and herein we all agree. 
But it is not at all there expressed, whether this bread 
was afterwards changed or annihilated or not. And 
this is now the question in dispute among us. We 
ought therefore (according to the council of Scholarius) 
to prove this, by some other things which are there 
delivered clearly. And if thou dost this, thou hast got 
the victory : if not, I do not at all see why or how thou 
canst oblige any one to believe it. 

* Scholar. Orat. 3, t. 4. Cone. Gen. p. 652 et 653. 
t Ibid. 



346 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

In like manner the Scripture tells us, in terms as 
express as can be, that our Saviour Christ commanded 
his Apostles to take and eat, and to drink that which he 
gave them in celebrating the eucharist. But it does not 
at all say, that he commanded them to offer the same in 
sacrifice, either then or afterwards. And this is now 
the question : which it concerns those of the Church of 
Rome, if they will have us believe it, to prove by some 
other things, which are clearly and expressly delivered 
in the word of God. 

The Scripture, in like manner, says expressly that 
Jesus Christ is the mediator betwixt God and man : and 
that he is the head of the Church ; and that he purgeth 
us by his blood from our sins. Now in all this, both 
sides are fully agreed. But it is not at all there ex- 
pressed that the departed saints are mediators ; that the 
Pope is the head of the Church ; and that our souls are 
in part cleansed from their sins by the fire of purgatory. 
Herein lies the controversy between us. The learned 
Scholarius's opinion herein would now be, that certainly 
those who propose these points as articles of faith, de- 
duce and collect them from some things which are 
clearly delivered in the Scriptures : for otherwise they 
are not to be pressed as truths. And although in 
matters of religion, or indeed in any other things of im- 
portance, a man may very well be excused for not be- 
lieving a thing, when there appears not any such reason, 
as may oblige him to believe it : yet notwithstanding, if 
those who reject the articles now disputed among us, 
have a mind to go further yet, and to prove positively 
the falseness of them ; you see this author has laid 
down the way by which they are to proceed. He ac- 
counts those very absurd who require at your hands 
that you should shew them all things expressly deliver- 
ed in the Scripture : and this ought principally to be 
understood of negative propositions ; of which no 
science gives you any certain account : forasmuch as to 
go about to number them all up, would be both an in- 
finite and also unprofitable piece of work. It is sufficient 
to deliver the positive truth. For, as whatever rightly 
follows thereupon is true; in like manner, whatsoever 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 34~ 

clasheth with or contradicteth the same is false, wouldst 
thou therefore demonstrate those propositions that are 
pressed upon thee to be false ? Only compare them 
with those things that are clearly and expressly deliver- 
ed in the Scripture ; and if thou findest them contrary 
to any thing there set down, receive them not by any 
means. As for example, if a Protestant, not content- 
ing himself with having answered all those reasons 
which are brought to prove that there is such a place as 
purgatory, shall yet desire to go further, and to make it 
appear that the opinion is false j he is in this case to 
have recourse to the Scripture, and to examine it by 
those things which are there clearly and expressly de- 
livered on the state of the soul, after it is departed this 
life, and touching the cause and means of the expia- 
tion of our sins, and the like. If the opinion of purgatory 
be found to contradict anything.there delivered, then, ac- 
cording to Scholarius, " it ought not to be received by 
any means." But the brevity which we proposed to our- 
selves in this discourse, permits us not to prosecute 
this point any further. 

As for the other question, it is no very difficult 
matter to resolve it. For, although w r e do not indeed 
allow any supreme and infallible authority to the writ- 
ings of the Fathers, yet we do not therefore at once 
account them useless. If there were nothing of use in 
religion, saving what was also infallible, we should have 
but little good of any human writings. Those who 
have written in our own age, or a little before, are of 
no authority at all, either against the one or the other 
party. Yet notwithstanding we read them, and also 
derive much benefit from them. How much more ad- 
vantage then may we make, by studying the writings 
of the Fathers, whose piety and learning were for the 
most part much greater than that of the moderns ? St. 
Augustin believed them not in anything otherwise 
than as he found what they delivered to be grounded 
upon reason ; and yet, notwithstanding, he had them in 
very great esteem. The like may be said of St. Hie- 
rome, who had read almost all of them over 5 notwith- 
standing that he takes liberty sometimes to reprove them 



348 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

somewhat sharply, where he finds them not speaking to 
his mind. Though you should deprive them not only of 
this supremacy,, which yet they never sought after, but 
should rob them also of their proper names, yet not- 
withstanding would they still be of very great use unto 
us. For books do not therefore profit us, because they 
were of such a man's writing ; but rather because they 
instruct us in those things that are good and honest, 
and keep us out of error, and make us abhor those 
things that are vicious. Blot out, if you please, the 
name of St. Augustin out of the title of those excellent 
books of his Be Civitate Dei, or those other which he 
wrote De Doctrina Christiana. His writings will instruct 
you not a whit the less ; neither will you find the less 
benefit from them. The like may be said of all the 
rest. 

First of all, therefore, you will find in the Fathers 
many earnest and zealous exhortations to holiness of 
life, and to the observance of the discipline of Jesus 
Christ. Secondly, you will there meet with very strong 
and solid proofs of those fundamental principles of our 
religion, on which we are all agreed : and also many 
excellent things developed, tending to the right under- 
standing of these mysteries, and also of the Scriptures 
wherein they are contained. In this very particular, 
their authority may be of good use unto you, and may 
serve as a probable argument of the truth. For is it not 
a wonderful thing to see, that so many great wits, born in 
so many several ages, during the space of fifteen hun- 
dred years, and in so many several countries, being 
also of such different tempers, and who in other things 
were of such contrary opinions, should notwithstanding 
be found all of them to agree so constantly and unani- 
mously in the fundamentals of Christianity ? that amidst 
such great diversity in worship, they all adore one and 
the same Christ ? preach one and the same sanctifica- 
tion ? hope all of them for one and the same immor- 
tality ? acknowledge all of them the same gospels ? find 
therein all of them great and high mysteries ? 

The exquisite wisdom, and the inestimable beauty 
itself, of the discipline of Jesus Christ, I confess, is the 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 349 

most forcible and certain argument of the truth of it : 
yet certainly this consideration also is, in my opinion, 
no small proof of the same. For, I beg to say, what 
probability is there, that so many holy men, who were 
endued (as it appears by their writings) with such ad- 
mirable parts, with so much strength and clearness of 
understanding, should all of them be so grossly over- 
seen, as to set so high a value upon this discipline, as to 
suffer even to death for it 3 unless it had in it some certain 
divine virtue, calculated to make an impression in the 
souls of men ? What likelihood is there that seven or 
eight dogs, and as many atheistical hogs, that bark and 
grunt so sottishly and confusedly against this sacred and 
venerable religion, should have better luck in lighting 
upon the truth, than so many excellent men, who 
have all so unanimously borne testimony to the truth ? 

As for Atheists, their vicious life ought to render their 
testimony suspected by every one -, notwithstanding they 
may be otherwise (as indeed they conceive themselves 
to be) able men. For, I beg to say, what wonder is it, 
if a whoremonger, or an ambitious person, cry down that 
discipline that condemns their vices to everlasting fire ? 
that he that drowns himself every day, and at length vo- 
mits up his soul in wine, should hate that religion which 
forbids drunkenness upon pain of damnation ? The great 
reason that these men have to wish that it were false, 
must needs make any man cease to wonder at their pro- 
nouncing it to be false. To take any notice therefore of 
what such wretches as these may say, is the same as if 
you should judge, by taking the opinion of common 
strumpets, of the equity or injustice of the laws that 
enjoin people to live honestly. But the case is clear- 
ly otherwise with these holy men, who have so con- 
stantly and so unanimously taught the truth of the 
Christian religion. For seeing they were men born and 
brought up in the very same infirmities with other men, 
we cannot doubt but that they also naturally had strong 
inclinations to those vices, which our Saviour Christ 
forbids ; and very little affection to those virtues which 
he commands. Forasmuch, therefore, as notwithstand- 
ing all this, they have yet all of them constantly 



350 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

maintained that his doctrine is true, their testimony 
certainly in this case neither can nor ought in any wise 
to be suspected. So that although they had not any of 
those great and incomparable advantages of parts and 
learning, above the enemies of Christianity, their bare 
word however is much rather to be taken than the 
others ; seeing that these men are manifestly carried 
away by the force of their own vile affections, of which 
the other cannot possibly be suspected guilty. And as 
for those differences in opinion, w T hich are sometimes 
found amongst them, on certain points of religion, some 
whereof we have formerly set down ; these things are 
so far from disparaging the weight of their testimonies, 
that on the contrary they rather very much add to it. 
For this must acquit their consenting of all suspicion, 
that some perhaps might have, that it proceeded from 
some combination, or some correspondence and mu- 
tual intelligence. When you find them so disagreeing 
among themselves, on so many several points, it is an evi- 
dent argument that they have not learnt their knowledge 
from one another ; nor )^et have all agreed upon the 
same thing by common deliberation 3 but have all of 
them collected it out of a serious examination and con- 
sideration of the things themselves. And if we received 
no other benefit by the writings of the Fathers, yet would 
this however be considerable. 

But now, that the benefit and satisfaction, which we 
shall receive from this consideration, may not be inter- 
rupted and disturbed by our meeting with so many 
several private opinions of theirs ; we are to take notice, 
that Christianity consists not in subtleties, nor in the 
great number of its articles. The efficacy of them is 
much more considerable than the number. A great 
part of these points of faith, and the end of all the rest, is 
sanetification ; that is to say, a pure worship of God, and 
a hearty charity towards men. Thou mayest therefore 
boldly conclude that man to be a true observer of this 
discipline, whom thou shalt find to have a right sense 
and apprehension of these two points. Though perhaps 
he may be ignorant of those others, that exist rather in 
speculation than in practice, thou ought not to reject 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 351 

him. And if, being carried away on that account, his 
own curiosity, or some other reason, he chance to err 
in some of those articles, bear with him notwithstand- 
ing. As God forgives us our sins, so does he also for- 
give us our errors. The hay and the stubble and the 
chaff shall be consumed : but yet he that buildeth 
therewith shall be saved, if he only hold fast to the 
foundation. Neither oughtest thou to be troubled, if thou 
now and then meetest with some ignorant or perhaps 
some erroneous passages in the Fathers respecting these 
points. They are not a whit the less Christian on 
this account, and may for all this have been most faith- 
ful servants of Jesus Christ . There is not any face in 
the world so beautiful, but that it has some speckle or 
blemish in it ? Yet is it not either the less esteemed, 
or the less beloved. The natural condition of mortal 
men and things, is to have some mixture of imper- 
fection. 

But now, besides what has been hitherto said, we may, 
in my opinion, make another very considerable use of 
the Fathers. For there sometimes arise such turbulent 
spirits, as will needs broach doctrines arising from their 
own imagination, which are not grounded upon any 
principle of the Christian religion. I say, therefore, that 
the authority of the ancients may very properly and 
seasonably be made use of against the assurance of 
these men : by shewing that the Fathers were utterly 
ignorant of any such fancies as these individuals pro- 
pose to the world. And if this can be proved, we ought 
then certainly to conclude that no such doctrine was 
ever preached to mankind, either by our Saviour Christ, 
or by his Apostles. For what probability is there, that 
those holy Doctors of former ages, from whose hands 
Christianity hath been derived down unto us, should 
be ignorant of any of those things which had been re- 
vealed and recommended by our Saviour, as important 
and necessary to salvation ? It is true indeed that the 
Fathers, being deceived either by some false manner of 
argumentation, or else by some seeming authority, do 
sometimes deliver such things as have not been revealed 
by our Saviour Christ ; but are evidently either false or 



352 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

ill grounded -, as we have formerly shewn in those ex- 
amples before produced by us. It is true, moreover, 
that among those things which have been revealed by 
our Saviour Christ in the Scripture, which yet are not 
absolutely necessary to salvation, the Fathers may have 
been ignorant of some of them ; either by reason that 
time had not as yet discovered what the sense of them was ; 
or else, because that for lack of giving good heed unto 
them, or by their being carried away with strong feelings, 
they did not then perceive what has since been ascer- 
tained : but that they should all of them have been ig- 
norant of any article that is necessarily requisite to 
salvation, is altogether impossible. For, according to 
this, they should all have been deprived of salvation ; 
which, I suppose, every honest soul would tremble at 
the thought of, 

I say then, and, as I conceive, have sufficiently 
proved in this treatise, that an argument which con- 
cludes the truth of any proposition from the Fathers 
having maintained the same, is very weak and ill- 
grounded ; as supposing that which is clearly false, that 
the Fathers maintained nothing which had not been 
revealed by our Saviour Christ. For this would be the 
kind of argument similar to a man proving the general 
agreement of the Fathers, that all the departed souls 
are shut up together in a certain place, or receptacle, 
till the day of judgment : or that the eucharist is ne- 
cessarily to be admitted to little infants, and the like ; 
where every one sees how insufficient and invalid this 
kind of argumentation is. To say the truth, such is 
the proceeding of the Church of Rome, when they go 
about to prove, by the authority of the Fathers, those 
articles which they propose to the world, and which are 
rejected by the Protestants. 

I say moreover, that to conclude upon the nullity or 
falseness of any article, that is not of the number of 
those that are necessary to salvation, from the general 
silence of the Fathers respecting the same, is a very ab- 
surd way of arguing ; as supposing a thing which is 
also manifestly false ; namely, that the Fathers must 
necessarily have seen and clearly known all those things 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 353 

which Jesus Christ has revealed in his word. Such a 
kind of argument would it be thought among the Fran- 
ciscans, if any one should conclude against them, from 
the silence of the Fathers, that our Saviour Christ has 
not at all revealed that the blessed Virgin Mary was 
conceived without sin. But yet I confess again, on the 
other side, that in those points that are accounted as 
absolutely necessary to salvation, an argument that 
should be drawn from the general silence of the Fathers, 
to prove the nullity or falseness of it, would be very 
pertinent, and indeed unanswerable. As, for example, 
his manner of argumentation would be very rational 
and sound, who should conclude that those means of 
salvation which are proposed by a Mahomet, suppose, 
or a David George, or the like sectaries, are null, and 
contrary to the will of our Saviour Christ, (however 
much these men may seem to honour him) seeing that 
none of the ancient Christians speak so much as one 
syllable of it, and are utterly ignorant of all those se- 
crets which these wretches have preached to their dis- 
ciples, and delivered as infallible and necessary means of 
salvation. After this manner did Trenaeus dispute 
against the Valentinians, and others of the Gnostics ; 
who promulgated their own senseless dreams and 
absurd issues of their own brain, saying that the Crea- 
tor of the world was but an angel ; and that there were 
above him certain divine powers which they called 
JEones, that is to say ages ; some of them making more 
of these and others fewer, and some reckoning to the 
number of three hundred and sixty-five, and an infinite 
number of other similar prodigies ; never shewing any 
ground for the same, either in reason or out of the 
Scripture. Irenseus* therefore, that he might make it 
appear to the world that this strange doctrine was 
produced from their own imagination only, undertakes 
to visit the archives of all the Churches that had been 
either planted or watered by the holy Apostles, and 
turns over all their records, evidences, and ancient 



* Irenseus, 1. 3. contr. Hce. c. 1, 2, 3, & 4. 
f Id. 3. c. 2. 



354 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

monuments ; and these JEones, Achamot and Barbelo of 
the Gnostics no where appearing, nor so much as the 
least part or trace of them, he concludes that the 
Apostles had never delivered any such thing to their 
disciples, neither by writing, nor by word of mouth, as 
these impostors pretended they had. For certainly if 
they had done so, the memory of it could not have been 
so utterly lost. This is also the method that Tertullian 
followed, in his disputations against these very heretics 
and others of the like description, in the twenty-second 
chapter of his book De Prcescriptionibus adversus Hereticos, 
and in other places. The practice of these great persons, 
who made use of it themselves, will here serve to prove 
to us that this course is correct and advantageous. 

Thus you see that the authority of the Fathers is of 
very great use in the Church, and serves as an outwork 
to the Scriptures, for repelling the presumption of those 
who would forge a new faith. But inasmuch as those who 
broach new doctrines of their own imagination, do ordina- 
rily slight the Holy Scriptures as those very heretics did, 
whom Irenaeus confuted ; who impudently accused them 
" of not being right, and that they are of no authority, 
and speak in very ambiguous terms ; and that they are 
not able to inform a man of the truth, unless they are 
acquainted with tradition, the truth having been de- 
livered (as these men pretended) not in writing, but by 
word of mouth."* For this reason, I say, as well as 
others, are the writings of the Fathers of very great 
use in these disputes 3 and I conceive this to be one of 
the principal ends for which Divine Providence has, in 
despite of so many confusions and changes, preserved 
so many of them safe to our times. 

If therefore the Protestants should propose from their 
own imagination, and press as absolutely necessary to 
salvation, any positive article which does not appear in 



* Ciim enim ex Scripturis arguuntur, in accusationera convertun- 
tur ipsarum Scripturarum, quasi non recte habeant, neque sint ex 
auctoritate, et quia varie sint dictse, et quia non possit ex his inveniri 
Veritas, ab his qui nesciant traditionem. Non enim per litteras tra- 
ditam illam, sed per vivam vocera. — Iren. L 3. c. 2. 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 355 

antiquity, without question this course might, with very 
good reason, be made use of against them. But it is 
most evident that there is no such thing in their belief ; 
for they maintain only such things as are either ex- 
pressly delivered in the Scriptures, or else are evidently 
deduced from thence 3 and such as have also been ex- 
pounded, the greatest part of them, and interpreted by 
the ancients, not in their own private writings only, but 
even in their creeds and synodical determinations also. 
They pretend not either to any particular revelation or 
secret tradition, or any other new principle of doctrine. 
Their faith is grounded only upon the old, and (which is 
the most authentic instrument of Christianity) the New 
Testament. Only in their expositions either of the 
doctrines therein contained, or other passages, they 
produce some few things that are not at all found in the 
Fathers. But these things being not necessary to 
salvation, the argument which is brought from the 
silence of the Fathers herein, is not sufficient to prove 
the falsity of them. Time, experience, assistance of 
others, and the very errors also of the ^Fathers, having 
(as they say) now laid that open to them, which was 
heretofore more difficult and hard to be discovered, and 
noticed of Divine Revelation. Who knows not that a 
dwarf, mounted upon a giant's shoulders, looks higher 
and sees further than the giant himself? It would be 
ridiculous in any man that should conclude, that that 
which the dwarf pretends to discover is not in nature, 
because in that case the giant must also have seen it. 
Neither would he be much wiser, that should accuse the 
dwarf of presumption, because, forsooth, he has told 
us that of which the giant said not a word : seeing that 
it is the giant to whom the dwarf is beholden for the 
greatest part of his knowledge. This is our case, say 
the Protestants : we are mounted upon the shoulders of 
that great and high giant, Antiquity. That advantage 
which we have above it by its means, enables us to see 
many things in Divine Revelation, which it did not see. 
Yet this cannot be any ground for presumption in us, 
because we see more than it did j forasmuch as it is 
this very antiquity to which we owe a great part of this 
our knowledge. 



356 THE FxVTHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

It is therefore certainly clear, that as for the Protest- 
ants, and what concerns the positive points of their faith, 
they are wholly without the compass of the dispute. 
And as for those of the Church of Rome, they cannot, 
for the reasons before given, make any advantage of the 
testimony of the ancients, for the proving of any of 
those points of doctrine which they maintain, save only 
of those wherein their adversaries agree with them : and 
therefore, if they would have us come over to their be- 
lief, they must necessarily have recourse to some other 
kinds of proofs. But yet I do not see but that we may 
very well make inquiry into antiquity, respecting many 
articles which are now maintained by those of the 
Church of Rome : and if we find that the ancients have 
not said any thing of the same, we may then positively 
conclude, that they are not to be accounted as any part 
of the Christian religion. 

I confess, that there are some of them, against which 
this argument is of no force : as those which they'do not 
account necessary to salvation, and which both the an- 
cients heretofore might have been,and we also at this day 
may be, ignorant of. But certainly this argnment, in my 
judgment, would be utterly unanswerable against such 
points as they press as necessary, and whereon indeed 
they would have our salvation wholly to depend : as, for 
example, the supreme authority of the Pope and of the 
Church, which owneth him as its head ; the adoration of 
the holy sacrament of the eucharist, the sacrifice of the 
mass, the necessity of auricular confession, and the 
like. For if they are of such great importance, as they 
would make us believe, it would be a point of high im- 
piety to say that the Fathers knew nothing of them : in 
the same manner as it would be a most absurd thing to 
maintain, that though they did not know them, they 
would not yet speak one word of them, in all those books 
which we have of theirs at this day. And if they had 
said any thing at all of them in their writings, we have 
no reason in the world to suspect, that possibly those 
passages where mention was made of them, may have 
been raised, or corrupted and altered, by false hands : 
seeing that this piece of knavery would have been done 



AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 357 

to the disadvantage of those who had these books in 
their custody. 

We have rather very good reason to suspect, that 
whatever alterations there are, they have been made in 
favour of the Church of Rome ; as we have proved be- 
fore in the first book. If therefore, after so long a time, 
and after so many indexes as they of the Church of 
Rome have put forth, and so great a desire as they have 
had to find these doctrines of theirs in the writings of 
the Fathers, and the little conscience that they have 
sometimes made of foisting into the writings of the 
Fathers what they could not find there ; we can still, 
notwithstanding, make it appear, that they are not to be 
found there at all : — after all this, I say, who can pos- 
sibly doubt but that the Fathers were ignorant of them ? 
Who will ever be persuaded to believe, that they held 
them necessary to salvation ? And if they were not 
known to be such then, how can any body imagine that 
they should come to be such now ? 

In conclusion, my opinion is, that although the autho- 
rity of the Fathers be not sufficient to prove the truth of 
those articles which are now maintained by the Church 
of Rome against the Protestants, although the ancients 
should perhaps have believed the same, it may, not- 
withstanding, serve to prove the falsity of them, in case 
we should find by the Fathers that the ancients were 
wholly ignorant of them, or at least acknowledged them 
not for such, as they would now have us believe them 
to be : which is a business that so nearly concerns the 
Protestants, as that to be able to bring about their de- 
sign I conceive they ought to employ a good part of their 
time in reading over the books of the ancients. Only it 
is requisite that each party, when they undertake so 
tedious and so important a business as this, should come 
well provided with all necessary qualifications, as a know- 
ledge of the languages and of history, and should also 
be well read in the Scriptures; and that they use herein 
their utmost diligence and attention, and withal read 
over exactly whatsoever we have left us of the Fathers, 
not omitting anything that possibly they can obtain ; 
because a little short passage many times gives a man 



358 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 

very much light in elucidating their meaning : and not 
think (as some, who much deceive themselves do) that 
they perfectly know what the sense and belief of the 
ancients was, because perhaps they have spent four or 
five months in reading them over. But above all, it is 
necessary that they come to this business void of all 
partiality and prejudice, which is indeed the greatest and 
the most general cause of that obscurity which is found 
in the writings of the Fathers, whilst every one endea- 
vours to make them speak to his sense ; whereas in the 
greatest part of these points of religion, which are now 
controverted amongst us, these ancient authors really 
believed much less than the one party does, and some 
little more than the other does : and there are but a 
very few points of all this number, wherein they are 
fully and absolutely of the same opinion with either of 
the two parties. Neither is it sufficient in this business 
to take notice of such testimonies as either positively 
affirm or deny those things which we are searching 
after, because, however clear they may perhaps be, it 
can scarcely be conceived but that a quick wit will find 
something to darken the sense of them : as you 
may observe in all books of controversy; where you 
shall have them so baffle and make nothing of such 
testimonies as are brought against them out of the an- 
cients, that you would hardly know what opinion to 
form. 

You must also observe what are the necessary conse- 
quences of each particular article : it being impossible 
to conclude upon any one point of any importance, but 
that there will presently follow upon it diverse con- 
sequences, as well within as without the Church. — 
As for example, you are to consider what the con- 
sequences are of the transubstantiation of the eucharist, 
as now held by the Church of Rome ; of purgatory ; and 
of the monarchical authority of the Pope : and when you 
have observed them well, you are then to mark, in read- 
ing the books of the ancients, whether they appear there 
in whole or in part. For if you find them not there at 
all, it is a most certain argument, that the doctrine from 
whence they proceed, and upon which they follow, is 
new and unsound. 



i 



AS JUDGES IN TOTNTS OF RELIGION. 359 

I shall not, however, proceed any further in this dis- 
course, since various others have already treated hereof 
at large ; it being, in my judgment, no difficult matter to 
conclude, from what we have here delivered, how we 
ought to read the Fathers. 



THE END. 



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